Complaint Thrown Out by the Supreme Court Due to Plaintiff’s Failure to Come Up With Surety Bond

Updated post (July 8, 2015): In the case described below, the Minnesota Supreme Court recently held that Plaintiff Webb did, in fact, have standing to bring the lawsuit that it brought affirming the district court and the Court of Appeals. (Hurray for Webb!) The Minnesota Supreme Court went on to hold that Webb’s failure to pay a surety bond, as ordered by the district court required dismissal of Webb’s complaint with prejudice (reinstating the district court decision and reversing the intermediate court’s decision). (Boo-hoo for Webb!)

As long as the State owns the land, the City receives no tax revenue from the parcels. This lawsuit has already delayed the Project by more than two years, arguably costing the City millions of dollars in tax revenue. These facts form a sufficient basis for the district court to find potential harm to the public or taxpayers as required by section 469.045 [to justify the order of posting a surety bond, which Webb failed to do].

Original post (10/14/14): If you are like most people, you have never given much though, if any, to the legal and property complications that might arise when a road is being rebuilt.

Some public entity or another (or, likely, more than one) has to buy up property, build/rebuild the road, and when the building is through, maybe the public entities have left over property, to put back into private hands?

Such a scenario never occurred to me as a possibility before reading the Minnesota Court of Appeals’ decision in Webb Golden Valley LLC v. Global One Golden Valley LLC.  But I guess this happens. And there is apparently some uncertainty as to how governmental entities can dispose of its “left-overs….”

It seems that Global One Golden Valley LLC had worked out a deal with Golden Valley Housing and Redevelopment Authority (GVHRA) to obtain one of these left-over parcels. Webb Golden Valley LLC wanted in, however, and went to court to get a shot at buying some of the property.

Global One, the GVHRA, and the state of Minnesota objected to the interloper, raised several arguments, and asked Hennepin County District Court Judge Edward T. Wahl to force Webb Golden Valley to post a surety bond if it was going to interfere with and delay their planned property transfer. Judge Wahl agreed with the plan. Webb Golden Valley appealed and the Court of Appeals reversed Judge Wahl.

The Minnesota Supreme Court granted the petitions of the GVHRA, the state of Minnesota, and Global One at the end of September.