Justia Real Estate & Property Law Opinion Summaries

Mary Orwig appealed after a district court entered a corrected summary real estate disposition judgment, an order on plaintiff’s attorney’s fees, an order denying her motion for contempt, and an order granting Steven Orwig’s motion on redistribution of property. Steven Orwig cross-appealed the order on redistribution of property and an order denying his motion to reconsider. After careful consideration, the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the corrected summary real estate disposition judgment, order on plaintiff’s attorney’s fees, and order denying the motion for contempt. The Court also affirmed the order on redistribution of property and the order denying the motion to reconsider. View "Orwig v. Orwig" on Justia Law

Lane Knudsen, Ann Gochnour, and Marcia Talley and David Talley, Trustees of the Marcia K. Talley Living Trust (Landowners), appeal from a district court judgment foreclosing Henry Hill Oil Services LLC’s construction liens against the Landowners’ properties and awarding Henry Hill Oil its costs and attorney’s fees. Landowners owned real property in Williams County, North Dakota. In 2017 and 2018, the Landowners executed water pipeline easements with RWS Holdings, LLC. The agreements granted RWS Holdings 75-foot-wide temporary easements for constructing a water pipeline and related facilities across and under the Landowners’ properties. The agreements granted RWS Holdings 30-foot-wide permanent pipeline easements on the properties. The temporary easements expired upon completion of the water pipelines. The Talley-Gochnour Defendants also granted RWS Holdings an easement for constructing a freshwater reservoir on their property. The easement term was 20 years or “until Grantee permanently removes” the reservoir from the property. RWS Holdings hired Regional Water Service, LLC, which then hired Henry Hill Oil, to construct water reservoirs on the properties. Henry Hill Oil worked on the Landowners’ properties from June 2018 to October 2018. Henry Hill Oil recorded construction liens against the Landowners’ properties after it was not paid for its work. In May 2019, Henry Hill Oil sued Regional Water Service for breach of contract. In October 2019, Henry Hill Oil sued the Landowners to enforce the construction liens. The North Dakota Supreme Court concluded the trial court erred in determining the Landowners’ properties were subject to Henry Hill Oil’s construction liens. The Court reversed the judgment and remanded for a determination of the Landowners’ costs and attorney’s fees. View "Henry Hill Oil Services v. Tufto, et al." on Justia Law

Transform Operating Stores, LLC d/b/a Transformco Operating Stores LLC; Transform SR Brands LLC d/b/a Transformco d/b/a Kmart; and Transform KM LLC (collectively, “Transform”) appealed after a North Dakota district court entered an order awarding damages to Ted J. Boutrous, L.L.C. and The Boutrous Group, LLP and entered a [second] amended judgment of eviction. The North Dakota Supreme Court concluded the district court did not err finding a material breach of the lease and in exercising jurisdiction as a summary eviction. "While the court abused its discretion in bifurcating the eviction action, that error was harmless." The Court further concluded Transform failed to timely appeal the court’s contempt order for the untimely turnover of the property. View "Boutrous, et al. v. Transform Operating Stores, et al." on Justia Law

Angus Kennedy owned real property and mineral interests in McKenzie County, North Dakota. In 1960, Angus and his wife, Lois, executed two deeds conveying the surface and “excepting and reserving unto the parties of the first part, their heirs, successors or assigns, all right, title and interest in and to any and all . . . minerals in or under the foregoing described lands.” Lois did not own an interest in the property when Angus and Lois Kennedy executed the deeds. Angus died in 1965, and Lois died in 1980. Angus and Lois did not have children together. Angus had six children from a previous marriage. Angus' heirs executed numerous mineral leases for the property. Lois had one child, Julia Nevin, who died in 1989. In 2016 and 2017, Julia Nevin’s surviving husband, Stanley Nevin, executed mineral leases with Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. In 2018, Stanley sued the successors in interest to Angus, alleging Lois owned half of the minerals reserved in the 1960 deeds. In response, the Angus heirs claimed Angus did not intend to reserve any minerals to Lois because she did not own an interest in the property conveyed in the 1960 deeds. The district court granted Northern Oil’s motion to intervene. Northern Oil appeals the quiet title judgment deciding Northern Oil did not own mineral interests in the McKenzie County property, arguing the district court erred in concluding the deeds at issue were ambiguous as to whether Angus intended to reserve minerals to his wife, Lois. Finding no reversible error in the trial court judgment, the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed. View "Nevin, et al. v. Kennedy, et al." on Justia Law

Defendants Eagle Crest Apartments, LLC, et al. appealed a judgment awarding UMB Bank N.A. more than $21 million in an action for breach of contract, foreclosure, fraudulent transfers, and deceit. The Defendants raised a number of issues on appeal. The North Dakota limited review to the issues raised in defendants' motion for a new trial, and concluded the district court did not err when it entered a deficiency judgment and pierced the Defendants’ corporate veils. View "UMB Bank N.A. v. Eagle Crest Apartments, et al." on Justia Law

Justin Shafer appealed a district court judgment confirming an arbitration award against Diamond Development & Custom Homes, L.L.C. Shafer argued the district court erred by failing to increase the amount of damages he was awarded. He also argued the North Dakota Supreme Court should narrowly expand the standard for reviewing an arbitration award. The Court declined Shafer’s request to expand the standard of review, and concluded the district court did not err in confirming the arbitration award. View "Shafer v. Scarborough, et al." on Justia Law

Scott Kubik appealed a judgment quieting title in favor of Dominic Hauck on a property line dispute and denying his claim of acquiescence. Kubik and Hauck were adjacent landowners. A wire fence ran east and west near the property line. After a survey of his land, Hauck discovered the fence was several feet inside of his property. Hauck removed the original fence and built a new fence consistent with the property line identified by the survey. In 2020, Kubik sued Hauck to quiet title in the strip of land located on the south side of the original fence line (i.e., the land between the original fence line and the new fence line) under adverse possession and acquiescence, and for trespassing and damaging his property. Hauck counterclaimed to quiet title in the disputed property. After a bench trial, the district court quieted title in favor of Hauck based on the survey showing that he is the rightful owner and rejected Kubik’s claims of adverse possession, acquiescence, trespass, and damages. The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed, concluding the district court did not clearly err in finding that Kubik failed to show by clear and convincing evidence that Hauck or his predecessors in interest recognized the original fence line as the property line. View "Kubik v. Hauck" on Justia Law

Jeff Trosen appealed a judgment and amended judgment awarding damages for a breach of contract claim to the Estate of Shirley Trosen and the Trosen Family Trust and dismissing Jeff’s counterclaim and third-party complaint. A dispute arose over Jeff’s lease of farmland from Shirley. The lease covered the farming seasons of 2017 through 2022. Partial payments were made in 2020 and 2021, leaving balances owed for those years. Shirley and the Trust sued Jeff for breach of contract and to cancel the lease. Jeff argued the district court erred in granting summary judgment on the breach of contract claim and by dismissing his counterclaim and third-party complaint. Finding no reversible error, the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the judgments. View "Trosen, et al. v. Trosen, et al." on Justia Law

The federal district court for the District of North Dakota certified five questions regarding N.D.C.C. § 38-08-08(1) and North Dakota Industrial Commission pooling orders. The litigation before the federal court involved allocation of mineral royalties in the case of overlapping oil and gas spacing units. Allen and Arlen Dominek owned oil and gas interests in Williams County, North Dakota. In 2011, the North Dakota Industrial Commission pooled the interests in Section 13 on the Dominek property with the interests in Section 24 in a 1280-acre spacing unit (the “Underlying Spacing Unit”). In 2016, the Commission pooled the interests in Sections 11, 12, 13, and 14 in a 2560-acre spacing unit (the “Overlapping Spacing Unit). The "Weisz" well terminated in the southeast corner of Section 14. The Defendants (together “Equinor”) operated the Weisz well. The Domineks sued Equinor in federal district court to recover revenue proceeds from the Weisz well. The parties agreed production from the Weisz well should have been allocated equally to the four sections comprising the Overlapping Spacing Unit. Their disagreement was whether the 25% attributable to Section 13 should have been shared with the interest owners in Section 24 given those sections were pooled in the Underlying Spacing Unit. In response to the motions, the federal district court certified five questions to the North Dakota Court. Responding "no" to the first: whether language from N.D.C.C. § 38-08-08(1) required production from Section 13 to be allocated to Section 24, the Supreme Court declined to answer the remaining questions because it found they were based on an assumption that the Commission had jurisdiction to direct how production was allocated among mineral interest owners. "Questions concerning correlative rights and the Commission’s jurisdiction entail factual considerations. ... An undeveloped record exposes this Court 'to the danger of improvidently deciding issues and of not sufficiently contemplating ramifications of the opinion.'” View "Dominek, et al. v. Equinor Energy, et al." on Justia Law

J.T. Wilkinson and Evelyn Wilkinson acquired title to property located in Williams County, North Dakota. In 1958, the Wilkinson conveyed the property to the United States for construction and operation of the Garrison Dam and Reservoir, but they reserved the oil, gas and other minerals in and under their property. Plaintiffs are the Wilkinson’ successors in interest. Plaintiffs appealed a judgment dismissing their takings, conversion, unjust enrichment, civil conspiracy and 42 U.S.C. 1983 claims against the Board of University and School Lands (“Land Board”), Department of Water Resources, and Statoil Oil & Gas LP. In 2010 and 2011, the Land Board entered into four oil and gas leases with oil operators in Williams County. The Land Board received and retained bonus payments from the oil operators. In 2012, plaintiffs sued the Land Board and oil operators to quiet title to disputed mineral interests in the conveyed property. Among other things, plaintiffs argued the State effectuated a taking of their royalties, and the State was unjustly enriched while the royalties were held in escrow at the Bank of North Dakota because the Bank was asking as the agent for the Land Board. Finding that the trial court did not err in rendering judgment against plaintiffs, the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed that court’s judgment. View "Wilkinson, et al. v. Bd. of University and School Lands of the State of N.D." on Justia Law