Opinions Archive

As used in Minnesota Statutes section 268.19, subdivision 2(c), the phrase “absolutely privileged” provides immunity from liability in civil actions for which information submitted to the Department of Employment and Economic Development, in order to determine an applicant’s entitlement to unemployment benefits, forms the subject matter or basis of the claim. Affirmed.

Appellant challenges her conviction for making threats of violence during a probation-revocation hearing, arguing that the state did not establish the intent element of the offense. Because sufficient evidence supports her conviction, we affirm.

In this appeal following a court trial on claims stemming from a construction dispute, appellant property owners challenge the district court's judgment and award of attorney fees. We reverse and remand, solely on the issue of damages.

In this direct appeal from the judgment of conviction for kidnapping and assault, appellant argues that the district court abused its discretion or plainly erred by admitting inadmissible hearsay evidence in the form of (1) the victim's video-recorded statement to responding police officers after she reported the assault, (2) the victim's statement to police the following day, (3) the victim's statement to police several months later about the assault, (4) the victim's 911 call, (5) the victim's medical records, and (6) the victim's text messages with appellant. Appellant also argues that the district court plainly erred by failing to sua sponte grant a mistrial, provide a curative instruction, or take other unspecified measures in response to a prospective juror's statement during jury selection, and that the cumulative effect of these errors deprived him of a fair trial. We affirm.

Appellant challenges the district court's order denying her motion for adoptive placement and intervention in the post-termination proceedings regarding her grandson. We affirm.

Appellant Larry A. Koch challenges the district court's order granting respondents Hennepin County and Carver County's motion for judgment on the pleadings. Koch also challenges the order granting respondents Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District, Bonnie Nelson, and Jill Crafton's motion to dismiss. We affirm.

Appellant challenges the district court's denial of his requested relief from civil commitment, arguing that the district court abused its discretion by failing to recognize his right to self-representation at commitment proceedings. We affirm.

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting her conviction for aiding-and-abetting attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and drive-by shooting of an occupied building. Appellant also argues that the prosecutor committed misconduct in closing argument. We affirm.

This case involves neighboring landowners and returns to our court for a second time. In the first appeal, this court reversed summary judgment in part and remanded for a trial. Following a bench trial and posttrial motions, appellant challenges the final judgment denying his prescriptive-easement claim and entering a money judgment for respondents based on their counterclaims for tortious interference with contract and slander of title. Appellant argues that the district court erred in two ways: (1) the record evidence established appellant's prescriptive easement for use of the disputed property, and (2) the record evidence is not sufficient to sustain respondents' tortious-interference-with-contract claim—and even if it were, the law does not support an award of attorney fees as damages. Appellant does not challenge the district court's judgment for respondents on their slander-of-title claim. Respondents disagree and, in their brief to this court, request appellate attorney fees and costs as a sanction. We conclude that the record evidence supports the district court's findings related to appellant's prescriptive-easement claim and respondents' tortious-interference claim. We need not determine whether the law supports an award of attorney fees as damages for tortious interference with contract, however, because any error was harmless. Appellant fails to challenge an independent and sufficient basis for the damages awarded—the judgment for respondents on their slander-of-title claim. We deny respondents' request for appellate attorney fees and costs. Thus, we affirm.

In these consolidated certiorari appeals, relators Matthew Severance, Andrew Bittell, Christopher Cushenbery, Kristopher Dauble, and Ronald Stenerson challenge decisions by respondent City of Minneapolis denying their requests for defense and indemnification. Relators requested defense and indemnification in relation to a federal lawsuit alleging that relators, who were employed by the city as police officers, used unreasonable force while patrolling city streets during a citywide curfew imposed after the murder of George Floyd. The city denied relators' requests for defense and indemnification after determining that they were "guilty of malfeasance in office, willful neglect of duty, or bad faith." Minn. Stat. § 466.07, subd. 1(2) (2024). On appeal, relators argue that the city exceeded its authority in denying relators' defense-and-indemnification requests, that the city's decisions violated relators' constitutional rights to due process and equal protection, and that the decisions are unsupported by substantial evidence and are arbitrary. Severance brought a motion to supplement the record for his appeal. We construe the motion to supplement the record as a motion to complete the record, and we grant the motion. We reject relators' challenges to the city's decisions based on the city exceeding its authority and violating relators' constitutional rights because they are foreclosed by our recent decision in In re Defense & Indemnification of Brown, ___ N.W.3d ___, 2025 WL 2901740 (Minn. App. Oct. 13, 2025), or they are otherwise unavailing. And we conclude that the city's decisions to deny relators defense and indemnification are supported by substantial evidence and are not arbitrary. We therefore affirm.