James T. Harrison

This case involved a plaintiff who sued for damages after being struck by a car while crossing a street on a pedestrian crosswalk in Sidney, Montana, alleging negligence by the defendant driver. The jury found the defendant liable and awarded the plaintiff $1,000 in general damages plus $365.25 in special damages. On appeal, the plaintiff argued errors in jury instructions regarding negligence and damages, as well as that the verdict was inadequate. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the judgment, holding that any instructional errors on liability did not affect the plaintiff's substantial rights because the jury found in his favor, that the given instructions sufficiently covered the damages issues, and that the award was not so inadequate as to shock the conscience given the evidence of injuries and lost profits.

torts & liabilityprocedure

In this case, plaintiff Beard sought to enforce a 1952 personal injury judgment against defendant H.B. Myers by subjecting real property recorded in the name of Myers's wife, Marie C. Myers, to the judgment lien. Beard alleged that Marie held the property in trust for her husband or that it was acquired through a fraudulent conveyance using the husband's funds to defraud creditors. After a bench trial, the district court ruled for the defendants, finding that Marie had purchased the property with her own separate funds. On appeal, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed, holding that substantial evidence supported the trial court's finding that no funds of the judgment debtor were used to acquire the property, so neither a resulting trust nor a fraudulent conveyance could be established under the relevant statutes.

propertyproceduretorts & liability

This case involved a breach of contract where the defendant agreed to sell a house and lot in Billings, Montana, to the plaintiffs for $20,000 but instead sold it to another buyer. The plaintiffs sued for damages, and a jury awarded them $2,959.20 based on instructions covering the measure of damages for bad-faith breach of a real property sale agreement, including the difference between the contract price and market value plus a possible "peculiar value" element. The Montana Supreme Court held that the evidence only supported $900 in damages under the applicable statutes (the market-value difference), as there was no proof of peculiar value to the plaintiffs and the jury improperly included costs like building a garage on replacement property. The court modified the judgment to $900 and affirmed it as modified, clarifying that Montana's contract damages statutes require market-value definitions and do not permit adding non-comparable improvement costs.

propertyprocedure

In Thompson v. Bantz, the plaintiff sought to reform a 1942 warranty deed conveying land in Montana, alleging that an attorney's oversight had omitted a contractual reservation of 50% of the oil and mineral rights; she also requested an accounting of delay rental payments received by the defendant under a subsequent oil and gas lease. The defendant denied any mistake in the deed and disputed the plaintiff's entitlement to any share of the rentals. The Montana Supreme Court held that the evidence of the drafting error was clear, convincing, and unrefuted, that the original contract for deed required the reservation, and that equity could enforce the existing agreement by reforming the deed. The court further ruled that the plaintiff was entitled to half the delay rentals paid after the lease date and remanded the case to determine the exact acreage-based amount due.

property

The case involved the estate of Tony Ginn, a Montana resident who died intestate in 1955, leaving heirs in the United States and in Yugoslavia. The State of Montana objected to distribution to the Yugoslavian heirs on the ground that reciprocity of inheritance and transfer rights did not exist between the United States and Yugoslavia as required by state statute. The district court, after hearings that included testimony from a Yugoslav consul and various exhibits, entered a decree finding that reciprocity existed and allowing distribution to the foreign heirs. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the petitioners had met their burden with substantial credible evidence establishing reciprocity at the time of death.

property

This case involved a dispute over the estate of Henry Glick, who died leaving a will that named his brother Chris Glick as the sole beneficiary and executor. Isabelle Knoll petitioned to be recognized as the sole heir, claiming she was Glick's illegitimate daughter who had been unintentionally omitted from the will and that he had acknowledged her in writing. The district court found in favor of Knoll after a jury answered interrogatories supporting her claims, and the Montana Supreme Court affirmed the judgment. The core reasoning was that a motel registration card signed by the deceased as "Henry Glick and daughter" in the presence of a witness constituted sufficient written acknowledgment under the statute to establish her as an heir, and procedural challenges regarding jurisdiction and evidence were rejected.

family lawproperty