Justia Montana Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions of two counts of assault with a weapon and one count of aggravated assault. On appeal, Defendant primarily challenged the effectiveness of his counsel regarding the jury instructions. The Supreme Court held (1) defense counsel did not provide ineffective assistance by failing to request a bystander justifiable use of force jury instruction; and (2) the district court did not impose illegal parole conditions by employing the language “for any period of community supervision” because that language was qualified by the statement that followed applying “conditions of probation.” View "State v. Mitchell" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed an order entered in the district court denying Defendant’s petition for touch DNA testing.Defendant was convicted of burglary, designated a persistent felony offender, and sentenced to forty years’ imprisonment. Defendant later requested that touch DNA analysis be conducted on fingerprint evidence collected from areas around the crime scene. Referring to the Innocence Protection Act (IPA) and federal precedent holding that touch DNA evidence can constitute new evidence, Defendant argued that his request for DNA testing was timely. The district court denied relief, concluding that even if the IPA applied to Defendant’s request, Defendant failed to set forth a plausible theory under which the DNA evidence would establish his innocence. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court correctly concluded that there was no reasonable probability that Defendant would have been exonerated if favorable DNA results had been obtained. View "Sartain v. State" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court reversed in part and affirmed in part the judgment of the district court granting summary judgment to Plaintiffs that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) violated the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) by issuing a wastewater discharge permit for a “big box” retail merchandise store. DEQ appealed. Intervenors and current owners of the site (Landowners) joined the appeal and also appealed the district court’s summary judgment that MEPA requires DEQ to identify the owner or operator of the contemplated retail store. The Supreme Court held (1) the district court erred in concluding that DEQ violated MPEA, in contravention of Admin. R. M. 17.4.609(3)(d) and (e), by failing to further consider the environmental impacts of the construction and operation of the facility other than water quality impacts and impacts of the related construction of the required wastewater treatment system; and (2) the district court correctly concluded that DEQ must identify and disclose the actual contemplated owner or operator of the facility for which the applicant seeks the subject wastewater discharge permit. View "Bitterrooters for Planning, Inc. v. Montana Department of Environmental Quality" on Justia Law

J.S. challenged her involuntary commitment to the Montana State Hospital (MSH). The only issue J.S. raised on appeal waswhether she was denied the effective assistance of counsel. J.S. suffered from bipolar disorder. She exhibited signs of psychosis and delusions after being “clipped” by a car and hit by the car’s mirror. She sustained several cuts and abrasions. Less than a month after being hit by a car, J.S. was taken to the emergency room for a severe cut on her leg that was untreated. J.S. was unable to communicate due to her extreme level of psychosis and delusional thinking. She was paranoid, irritable, and unable to consent to voluntary treatment. The cuts were dead tissue, which if not treated correctly, could have lead to the loss of the limb. Treatment of the wound required J.S. to change the dressings twice a day and take two antibiotics, one of which J.S. had to take four times a day and the other two times a day. J.S. would need to maintain supplies, and health officials were concerned, due to her presenting mental condition, J.S. would be unable to care for herself. The State sought to involuntarily commit J.S. to MSH. The district court ordered the commitment, and J.S. appealed, raising only an ineffective-assistance claim, rather than challenge the commitment itself. The Montana Supreme Court found no Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel for a civil commitment proceeding, and as such, rejected J.S.’ claim. The order of commitment was affirmed. View "Matter of J.S." on Justia Law

The Montana Supreme Court affirmed defendant's sentence after he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent. The court held that the district court carefully considered Montana's sentencing policies, statutory factors, and other relevant evidence in deciding defendant's sentence. The court explained that the district court's reference to defendant's unresponsive answer, which did not affirmatively invoke a constitutional right, was made in passing and was part of a much larger assessment of defendant's attitudes and character. The court held that this singular comment did not impact defendant's sentence. In this case, defendant's sentence was within the statutory limits, and was supported by the totality of the district court's appropriately stated reasons. View "Montana v. Otto" on Justia Law

The City appealed the district court's order and judgment holding that the City incorrectly paid "longevity" wage benefits under successfully negotiated collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and awarding damages to Officers. The Montana Supreme Court held that the district court erred by concluding as a matter of law that the longevity provisions of the subject CBAs were unambiguous. In this case, the differing language of the successive CBAs were reasonably subject to more than one interpretation, and the blanket exclusion of all extrinsic evidence offered by the City—while selectively relying on other extrinsic evidence—was likewise erroneous. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Watters v. Billings" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the district court entered after a jury concluded that Defendant violated Montana campaign finance and practices laws during his 2010 primary campaign for Senate District 35. The district court trebled the verdict amount and entered judgment in the amount of $68,232.58. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the Commissioner of Political Practices satisfied the statutory procedures for filing a judicial action against Defendant; (2) the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Defendant’s motions in limine to exclude two witnesses from testifying as experts; (3) the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Defendant’s motion for a new trial; and (4) the district court acted within its discretion in trebling the verdict amount. View "Commissioner of Political Practices for State of Montana v. Wittich" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court reversed the district court’s judgments ruling that the Montana Public Employees’ Association (MPEA) breached its duty of fair representation (DFR) to Jeffrey Folsom and engaged in common law fraud, awarding Folsom attorney fees as an element of compensatory damages on his DFR claim and awarding $50,000 in punitive damages on his common law fraud claim. The Supreme Court held (1) Folsom’s separately pled common law fraud claim is necessarily subsumed in his DFR claim and is thus not independently cognizable in this case; (2) the district court did not err in denying Folsom’s claim for compensatory lost wages and benefits on his DFR claim; (3) the district court erred in awarding fees to Folsom as an element of compensatory damages on his DFR claim; (4) the district court erred in awarding punitive damages without a compensatory damages predicate; and (5) the district court abused its discretion in refusing to grant MPEA’s motions for postjudgment relief from its summary judgment. View "Folsom v. Montana Public Employees’ Ass’n" on Justia Law

In this breach of contract action, the district court properly granted summary judgment to Plaintiff because Defendant failed to present sufficient admissible evidence to establish a genuine issue of material fact.Plaintiff, the owner of a gravel pit, entered into a contract with Defendant, a limited liability company, in which Plaintiff agreed to provide Defendant crushed aggregate material for a project. Once Defendant had removed all of the materials from the pit that it needed, Defendant refused to pay Plaintiff’s final invoices, arguing that the contract did not specify how the parties would measure the amount of material taken from the gravel pit and that the materials should be measured by volume at the project. The district court granted summary judgment for Plaintiff, concluding that the contract unambiguously required Defendant to base payment on the tonnage of crushed aggregate weighed by Plaintiff’s scales. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the contract designated that the material was to be sold by weight - in this case by tons - and the gravel pit scales were the only place to weigh the material by the ton. View "Moore v. Goran, LLC" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed in part Defendant’s sentence for his conviction of felony possession of dangerous drugs but remanded to the district court with instructions to strike twenty-three recommended conditions for community supervision. The district court sentenced Defendant to ten years in prison and included a number of conditions in the written judgment. The Supreme Court held (1) the prosecutor’s remarks at sentencing were improper, but they did not constitute reversible error because they did not prejudice Defendant; (2) Defendant failed to demonstrate that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the sentencing hearing; (3) the district court did not impose an unlawful sentence; and (4) the twenty-three recommended conditions listed in the written judgment were not included in the oral pronouncement of sentence and therefore must be stricken. View "State v. Lehrkamp" on Justia Law