Justia Montana Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Articles Posted in March, 2012
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Douglas Kirn was charged with two felony counts of assault on a police officer by causing reasonable apprehension of serious bodily injury by use of a weapon. The matter proceeded to a jury trial, and Kirn was convicted. Kirn appealed the denial of his motion to dismiss for lack of sufficient evidence. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court did not err in denying Kirn's motion to dismiss for insufficient evidence because, under these circumstances, the State presented sufficient evidence upon which a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. View "State v. Kirn" on Justia Law

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Kevin Kichnet was babysitting his young nieces when he met three-year-old Eternity after the Head Start bus dropped her off after school. Kichnet was allegedly holding her hand as they crossed the street when Eternity collapsed. Kitchnet called 9-1-1. After Eternity reached the hospital she was pronounced dead. Kichnet was subsequently arrested for deliberate homicide and jailed. More than six months later, charges against Kichnet were dropped when it was determined that the Head Start school bus had run over Eternity. Kichnet sued (1) Butte-Silver Bow County, claiming County law enforcement officers performed their investigation negligently, resulting in Kichnet's arrest and incarceration; and (2) the State, claiming that the State Medical Examiner performed his duties negligently when he reported Eternity's death as a homicide. The district court granted the County's and State's motions for summary judgment. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court did not err in its judgment, as (1) the State was immune under the cited statutes from Kichnet's negligence claim; and (2) the court did not err in determining that there was probable cause for the arrest and incarceration of Kichnet, and that the investigation by the County was not negligent. View "Kichnet v. Butte-Silver Bow County" on Justia Law

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After receiving reports of an erratic driver, a deputy sheriff approached the driver of a truck matching the report's description and asked the driver, William Muller, to perform a field sobriety test and to take a preliminary breath test. Muller refused both tests, after which the deputy sheriff arrested Muller for DUI. Muller again refused to submit to a breath test at the detention center, which resulted in the automatic suspension of his license. The district court denied Muller's subsequent petition for reinstatement of drivers license. Muller appealed, arguing that he was not properly arrested for DUI. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court properly determined that the deputy officer legally arrested Muller, and therefore, the court did not err in denying Muller's petition for reinstatement of driver's license. View "Muller v. Dep't of Justice" on Justia Law

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Employee, a truck driver, resigned from his employment with Employer after he developed arthritis. Employee later filed an occupational disease claim, which the Montana State Fund (MSF) denied. The Workers' Compensation Court (WCC) concluded that Employee's job duties were the major contributing cause of his arthritic condition, and therefore, Employee was suffering from an occupational disease. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the WCC did not err in concluding that Grande was suffering from a compensable occupational disease arising out of and in the course and scope of his employment, as the WCC's findings of fact were supported by substantial, credible evidence, and its conclusions of law were correct. View "Mont. State Fund v. Grande" on Justia Law

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Defendant Michell Anders was found unconscious and lying face down on the floor of a movie store. After several police officers and EMTs arrived on the scene and were unsuccessful at reviving Anders, one of the officers searched inside Anders' purse to look for identification and medical information. Inside the purse were drugs and drug paraphernalia. Anders subsequently pled guilty to criminal possession of dangerous drugs, a felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor, and reserved her right to appeal the order of the district court denying her motion to suppress evidence. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court did not err by denying Anders' motion to suppress the evidence found within her purse on the basis of the community caretaker doctrine, as the police acted appropriately under the standards the Court had adopted for application of the community caretaker doctrine. View "State v. Anders" on Justia Law

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Judith LaPlante filed an action in tribal court against Town Pump, Inc. and Major Brands Distributing Imports, Inc. (collectively, Defendants). The case was eventually dismissed by the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that the tribal court lacked jurisdiction over LaPlante's claims. LaPlante then filed a new action in state district court. District court judge Laurie McKinnon assumed jurisdiction. LaPlante attempted to commence the action in district court by transferring the tribal court action rather than filing a new complaint. The district court dismissed LaPlante's attempted transfer of the action from tribal court and provided LaPlante with twenty days to serve a complaint on Defendants. LaPlante filed a complaint as a new cause of action rather than as an amended pleading in the original transfer action. Judge McKinnon also assumed jurisdiction of the new action and consolidated the two cases. LaPlante filed a motion to substitute Judge McKinnon in the new action, which Judge McKinnon denied as untimely. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Judge McKinnon properly deemed LaPlante's substitution motion as untimely as the time limit elapsed well before LaPlante filed her substitution motion. View "LaPlante v. Town Pump, Inc." on Justia Law

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Employee filed a workers' compensation claim against Employer. Employer's Insurer accepted liability for Employee's claim. Insurer contracted with third-party Adjuster to provide services for Employee's claim. Employee and Insurer disagreed over elements of the claim, and Attorney advised Insurer on various legal matters. The claim was eventually resolved. Employee then filed the present action for unfair claims settlement practices, naming Insurer and an employee of Adjuster as defendants. Employee served Employer with a subpoena requesting, inter alia, a letter Attorney wrote to Adjuster's employee concerning the underlying case. Employer and Insurer objected to the subpoena, citing attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine. The court denied the motions. Insurer then petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of supervisory control. The Court dismissed the petition, holding that the district court correctly applied the law of attorney-client privilege but incorrectly analyzed the work product doctrine. However, because the court reached the proper conclusion, supervisory control was unnecessary. View "Am. Zurich Ins. v. Dist. Court" on Justia Law

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John Lacey was convicted in district court for sexual intercourse without consent based on his sexual intercourse with a minor while the minor was either asleep or intoxicated. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the prosecutor's statements during closing argument in the aggregate did stray so far from the permissible to satisfy the Court's standard of the exercise of plain error review, and counsel's failure to object to the statements did not constitute unreasonable conduct; and (2) the State did not impermissibly change or expand its legal theory of how Lacey committed sexual intercourse without consent, as Lacey's argument neglected the material available in the affidavit in support of the information. View "State v. Lacey" on Justia Law

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Lionel Ellison was convicted in the county justice court of misdemeanor party or family member assault. He appealed the conviction to the district court. Ellison subsequently appealed from an order of the district court denying his motion to supplement the record and denying his issues on appeal. The court denied the motions, which were based upon the State's alleged withholding of exculpatory information in violation of Ellison's right to due process according to Brady v. Maryland, concluding that Ellison's claims were not ripe for appellate review. The Supreme Court affirmed but on different grounds, holding that the district court did not err in denying Ellison's motions, as Ellison failed to establish a prima facie Brady violation and did not establish that his defense was prejudiced under the facts. View "State v. Ellison" on Justia Law

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Before being arrested for DUI, Richard Bollman underwent the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test. Bollman was subsequently convicted of his fifth DUI offense, a felony, after a jury trial. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the district court, holding that the court did not err in (1) finding that a highway patrol trooper was qualified under Mont. R. Evid. 702 to testify as an expert about the correlation between alcohol consumption and HGN, which was the scientific basis of the HGN test; and (2) denying Bollman's motion for a mistrial based on a police officer's reference to "felony DUIs" during questioning by the State, as any prejudice from the statement was very minor, if it was prejudicial at all, and the statement did not contribute to Bollman's conviction. View "State v. Bollman" on Justia Law