North Dakota Supreme Court

The court affirmed the amended judgment awarding Vormestrand primary residential responsibility and the denial of Craig's motion for a new trial or reconsideration. It held that although the district court misstated the threshold for considering domestic-violence evidence, the error was harmless because the court…

The court affirmed the domestic violence protection order as to B.S., but reversed the inclusion of the parties’ children because the findings did not establish that domestic violence was committed against them.

The court affirmed the amended criminal judgment, concluding that Cooper’s admission about smoking marijuana occurred before she was in Miranda custody, that reasonable suspicion justified her continued detention while the officer completed traffic-stop duties and awaited a K-9 unit, and that the dog’s indication…

The Court held that federal law preempts enforcement of an agreement requiring a veteran to compensate a former spouse for military retirement pay waived in favor of disability pay.

The court affirmed the amended judgment after concluding that officers lawfully searched Medina’s unlocked vehicle under the automobile exception. The vehicle was capable of being moved quickly, and the officers had probable cause based on Medina’s suspicious conduct and their observation of drug-related items in…

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, holding that the appellant’s challenge to the amendment of a charge was waived because it was not preserved or briefed under obvious error, and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of the defendant’s prior felony conviction…

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the default judgment entered after the district court struck Volker's answer and counterclaim as a discovery sanction, holding that Volker waived any arguments not raised in the district court and that Rule 60(b) is the exclusive avenue to vacate a default judgment.

The court dismissed the mother's appeal for lack of jurisdiction because she did not appeal the final order terminating her parental rights within the mandatory 30-day period. Her later motion to reform the request for district court review could not extend the appeal period or provide a means to collaterally attack…

The Court affirmed summary judgment for the School District, holding that the District waived its contractual right to require arbitration by failing to timely issue the written grievance decision required by the negotiated grievance procedure.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of a petition by a 76-year-old man seeking to adopt a 40-year-old woman. The Court held that the district court's factual findings were not clearly erroneous and that its denial of the petition was not an abuse of discretion, given concerns about the adoption's…

The court affirmed the district court's findings supporting a material change in circumstances, the best-interest determination, and the award of primary residential responsibility.

The court affirmed Reese’s judgment and the mandatory two-year prison term imposed under the armed-offender statute. It held that threatening another with imminent bodily injury “with” a firearm includes threatening through the use or means of the firearm and does not require brandishing or displaying it.

The court held that Maher’s sentence was not illegal because it remained within statutory limits and was not based on an impermissible factor. It nevertheless reversed because the district court abused its discretion by imposing a total prohibition on contact with Maher’s former wife without providing a way for him to…

The court affirmed Eggleston’s convictions, holding that he failed to establish actual prejudice from either the delay in charging him or the loss of the surveillance video, and failed to show the State acted in bad faith in allowing the video to be overwritten.

The North Dakota Supreme Court dismissed Rousseau's appeal because the district court's order dismissing his petition lacked a final judgment and was presumptively without prejudice, rendering the appeal non‑appealable under N.D.C.C. § 28‑27‑01.

The court affirmed the eviction judgment by summary disposition. It held that the challenge to execution of the eviction during the automatic-stay period was inadequately briefed and that the remaining claims could not be raised as counterclaims or defenses in the eviction proceeding.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s upward deviation of $1,500 in child support and the reinstated $750,000 life‑insurance obligation. The Court held that the trial court’s findings on best‑interest, the amount of the deviation, and the life‑insurance order were sufficiently explicit and not…

The Supreme Court held that a juvenile court must make a threshold determination of ICWA applicability for each new termination petition when the record does not show that the inquiry was made.

The court affirmed that the School Board did not waive the attorney-consultation exemption, properly invoked the exemption, and did not violate Haskell's due process rights by withholding the executive-session transcript during in camera review.

The Court affirmed the designation of Helgeson as a vexatious litigant and imposed a $500 sanction for fictitious and erroneous citations in his appellate brief. It held the license-plate proceeding was noncriminal, giving the district court authority to apply the vexatious-litigant rule, and concluded the designation…

The court granted a supervisory writ and directed dismissal of the class action because the asserted wage claims and unjust-enrichment claim were not claims arising upon a contract under the statutory waiver permitting suits against the State.

The court affirmed Haskins's amended judgment after concluding that, although the plea colloquy plainly failed to establish a sufficiently specific factual basis under Rule 11(b)(3), Haskins did not show that the error affected his substantial rights.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the juvenile court’s order terminating the mother’s parental rights. The Court found the juvenile court did not err in its findings that the children were in need of protection, that the causes of that need would likely continue, that the children suffered harm, and that active…

The court affirmed North Dakota's exercise of jurisdiction over the child-custody proceeding and the resulting award of primary residential responsibility to Hughes. Neither California nor North Dakota was the children's home state when the North Dakota proceeding began, and no other state with jurisdiction had…

The court held that NDIC had statutory authority to allocate oil and gas production among spacing units, but it did not regularly pursue that authority when it approved an allocation from an overlapping spacing unit to an underlying base unit without modifying the existing spacing and pooling orders.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court's denial of a motion to change venue, holding that the court did not abuse its discretion and that Cass County was a proper venue.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed Golberg’s child-neglect judgment, concluding that officers did not violate a reasonable expectation of privacy by entering the garage, which the district court found was the home’s public main access point during construction.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s order on remand, holding that no agreement existed to override the statutory default capital‑account and winding‑up rules, that Grosz was not entitled to an in‑kind distribution, and that the district court complied with the Court’s mandate.

The court affirmed the judgment entered after Mogren conditionally pleaded guilty, holding that the officer's warrantless reopening of a sunglasses case did not violate the Fourth Amendment or the North Dakota Constitution.

The court affirmed Krall’s murder conviction, holding that the circumstantial evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, permitted a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he intentionally or knowingly caused Queirolo’s death.

The court held that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over the criminal case, although it erred by treating the jurisdictional challenge as procedurally barred. It also held that the lack of a hearing on the summary-disposition motions was not error because the petitioner failed to timely reschedule…

The court dismissed the appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction because the district court's rulings did not finally resolve all claims in the action. The dismissal of the defendant's counterclaims without prejudice did not terminate those claims or prevent their reassertion, and no Rule 54(b) certification…

The court dismissed the appeal because an order disqualifying counsel is neither appealable under the statutory injunction provision nor immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine.

The court held that North Dakota had subject-matter jurisdiction to modify the Canadian visitation order because North Dakota was the child's home state and the relevant persons did not reside in Canada.

The court upheld the district court’s selected partition plan, concluding that the findings supported awarding Bryan Tischmak the specified portions of Sections 33 and 34 rather than the homeplace.

The court affirmed Solis’s criminal judgment and held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by requiring sex-offender registration after his misdemeanor indecent-exposure conviction.

The North Dakota Supreme Court held that the district court failed to comply with Rule 11(a)(2) because its judgment did not specify that Medina's guilty plea was conditional, and therefore remanded the case for the court to enter an appropriate order and judgment.

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s denial of a petition to return forfeited bail, holding that the order was appealable and that the lower court did not abuse its discretion in refusing the return.

The North Dakota Supreme Court held that the appellant’s criminal appeal was untimely and therefore outside the Court’s jurisdiction, and that the appellant’s issues concerning the denial of a petition to seal the record were waived because they were not adequately briefed; the Court affirmed the district court’s…

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the district court's modified parenting‑time order and denied both parties' requests for attorney's fees, finding the lower court's factual findings were not clearly erroneous and the appeal was not frivolous.