Update: “If you are going to predict,” my uncle (who was a stock broker) used to advise us, “predict often.” Minnesota Litigator has had a fairly high percentage correct predictions of pending court decisions in the past couple of years, but got this one wrong (see below for a case description and prediction), although it […]
Minnesota litigators are well aware of the substantial difference between taking third-party discovery out of state for a federal case pending in Minnesota as compared to a Minnesota state court action. Federal subpoenas are standardized and relatively straight-forward. The process for out-of-state discovery for use in Minnesota state court actions is significantly more varied and […]
Earlier this month, the Minnesota Supreme Court heard argument in the matter involving Thomas J. Lyons, Jr., who is widely known in the local bar, if only indirectly by many, through his prolific Fair Debt Collection Practices Act complaints filed in U.S. District Court (D. Minn.). FDCPA claims by Lyons and others represent a substantial […]
Back in 1973, then Attorney General Warren Spannaus said, “Under the Minnesota lien provisions, a homeowner sometimes finds that he must compensate persons who are entirely unknown to him for their contribution to the improvement of his property—this despite his having already paid his contractor in full for the improvement.” A law was passed to […]
In Minnesota, as in many states nationwide, the priority of loans secured by mortgages on real property is normally determined by the order in which the mortgages are recorded. But what if the first-in-time mortgage is recorded second through some foul-up or delay for which the first-in-time mortgage is perhaps not completely blameworthy (or worse, […]
This past summer, the United States District Court (D. Minn. (Ericksen, J.)) certified a number of questions to the Minnesota Supreme Court to be argued before the Minnesota Supreme Court tomorrow morning (12/1/09) in Savig vs. First National Bank of Omaha and Messerli & Kramer, P.A., Case No. A09-1221.The Minnesota Supreme Court will answer three questions put to […]
Farmers bought a “pneumatic grain-moving system” manufactured by Defendant Sukup and sold by Defendant dealer Superior. Apparently the system worked a little too well, going at such a high rate of speed that it damaged the grain, notwithstanding efforts by Superior to help Farmers get the system to work correctly. Farmers litigated and settled with […]
In a sale of real property, a mortgage was properly recorded in the grantor-grantee index, but not properly recorded in the tract index in Scott County. Purchaser hired an abstractor who looked in the tract index, but not the grantor-grantee index. Sellers did not tell purchaser about the Mid-Country mortgage to which the parcel was […]
The Minnesota Supreme Court today reversed the Minnesota Court of Appeals’ reversal of the Anoka County District Court’s grant of a motion to dismiss based on forum non conveniens (first reported here in February). For the Court, Justice Meyer wrote that a district court may dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds even though the adequacy of […]
Pawn America Minnesota wants to move into my neighborhood. The City of St. Louis Park seemed initially okay with the plan but, prodded by concerned residents, blocked the efforts at least for some time, saying further analysis and review is needed. The “proposed pawnshop operation was structurally different than the city’s other pawnshop because it […]