Albert Anderson

In Walker v. Hustad, the plaintiffs sued the defendant house builder for fraud and deceit, claiming they were induced to buy a newly constructed house in Helena based on assurances of good-quality materials, workmanship, and a comfortable home. The jury awarded the plaintiffs $400 in damages after finding that serious defects, including cracks in walls and floors, separating woodwork, and inadequate heating, appeared after the plaintiffs moved in, materially reducing the house's value. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the judgment, concluding that substantial evidence supported the verdict because the plaintiffs reasonably relied on the defendant's representations and the defects were proven by witness testimony. The court found no error in the instructions and determined that the case turned on whether the plaintiffs received the good house they were led to expect.

propertytorts & liability

The case involved the criminal prosecution of Lui Salina for buying various animal pelts without possessing either a fur dealer’s license or a fur dealer’s agent’s license, in violation of Montana's fish and game laws regulating the fur dealing business. The trial court convicted the defendant, but the Montana Supreme Court reversed the judgment. The court reasoned that the relevant statutes require fur dealers to obtain licenses for themselves and their agents, with the dealer applying for the agent's license, but do not clearly impose a requirement on the agent to procure or possess a license themselves; moreover, the complaint failed to adequately state an offense under the law as amended.

criminal lawbusiness & regulatory

The case involved landlords suing a Delaware hotel corporation for unpaid rent on a leased hotel in Butte, Montana. The lease permitted assignment to a Montana corporation, which the defendant did shortly after signing, but the Montana entity was an undercapitalized shell controlled by the same officers and stockholders as the Delaware company. The court held the Delaware corporation liable for the rent despite the assignment, reasoning that the corporate form could be disregarded when used to perpetrate fraud or evade obligations, as the parent continued controlling the business.

business & regulatoryproperty

The case concerned the State of Montana's effort to recover from the estate of Louis Kruger the costs of his care and maintenance in the State Insane Asylum after he was committed in 1931 by court order at private expense. Kruger died in 1940 without any payments having been made, and the state presented a claim to the estate administrator, which was rejected, leading to a lawsuit that the lower court dismissed on demurrer. The Supreme Court reversed, ruling that the complaint stated a valid cause of action because the liability was statutory rather than contractual and therefore was not subject to the nonclaim statute requiring presentation of contract-based claims against estates.

procedure

This case concerned whether a minor injured while employed in a hazardous job prohibited by child labor laws could recover under Montana's Workmen's Compensation Law or pursue a common-law action. The court held that the compensation law applies to such minors. The reasoning was that the 1925 amendment to the statute explicitly defines "employee" to include minors "whether lawfully or unlawfully employed," distinguishing it from other states' laws that require lawful employment for coverage under similar acts. Therefore, the minor is bound by the compensation law despite the illegal employment.

labor & employment

This case involved a dispute over whether a Montana license tax on the production of cement and gypsum products, enacted under Chapter 213 of the Revised Codes, applied to gypsum wallboard manufactured by United States Gypsum Co. The company operated a plant mining gypsum and producing plaster and other items including wallboard, and the state sought to collect tax based on the gypsum content in the wallboard. The court held that the tax did not apply to wallboard. It reasoned that the statute's administrative provisions for measuring and collecting the tax referenced only barrels of cement or tons of plaster and had not been updated to cover other products after a 1931 amendment, leaving the tax amount indeterminate for items like wallboard sold by square foot. Tax statutes must be clear and specific, with ambiguities resolved in favor of the taxpayer, and the court declined to supply missing measurement rules by implication.

taxesbusiness & regulatory