Fred J. Weber

The case involved Robert Schaal, a professor at Flathead Valley Community College, who sued after his one-year employment contract was not renewed for the 1992-93 academic year. Schaal claimed breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violation of due process, alleging that the college failed to follow its own grievance and personnel policies. The district court granted summary judgment on wrongful discharge and, after trial, dismissed the remaining claims, entering judgment for the college. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Schaal did not comply with the required grievance form and procedures, had no reasonable expectation of contract renewal creating a property interest, and thus had no valid claims under contract or due process. The core reasoning centered on the absence of any contractual right to arbitration or continued employment beyond the contract term.

labor & employmentprocedurecivil rights

In State v. Pace, the defendant was charged with burglary and deliberate homicide under the felony murder rule after a man was found stabbed to death in his ransacked home, with the state alleging the crimes occurred during a burglary. The Montana Supreme Court reversed the convictions and remanded for a new trial, holding that the district court abused its discretion by admitting evidence of two prior incidents involving the defendant: an arrest for panhandling and carrying a concealed weapon, and an arrest for armed robbery. The court reasoned that these other acts were not sufficiently similar in their elements or circumstances to the charged offenses of burglary-homicide to satisfy the similarity requirement of the Modified Just Rule under Rule 404(b), M.R.Evid., making further analysis of the rule's other elements unnecessary.

criminal lawprocedure

The case involved a criminal prosecution in which defendant Graves was convicted by a jury of sexual intercourse without consent after complainant Betsy Baker testified that he penetrated her vagina while she was asleep following his offer to drive her home after her boyfriend's DUI arrest. Graves appealed the verdict and sentence on five grounds: sufficiency of the evidence, admission of the substance of a 911 call reporting the incident, use of his post-arrest silence regarding consent during police questioning, the trial court's refusal to reread testimony to the jury, and whether the sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence in full, holding that the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict, that the challenged evidentiary rulings and trial procedures were not erroneous, and that the sentence was within statutory limits and properly justified on the record without violating constitutional protections. The court reviewed the claims for abuse of discretion or legal error and found none.

criminal lawprocedure

This case concerned landlords who sought to evict tenants for breaching a lease term requiring renters' insurance after the tenants' policy was canceled due to poor credit and they could not obtain new coverage. The district court ruled for the landlords, awarding them possession plus costs and fees, and concluded that accepting monthly rent payments did not waive the right to terminate for the insurance breach. The Montana Supreme Court reversed, holding that under § 70-24-423, MCA, a landlord's acceptance of full rent payments with knowledge of a known default constitutes a waiver of the right to terminate the lease for that breach. The court reasoned that the statute's plain language applies to any breach, not only nonpayment of rent, so the landlords had no valid basis for eviction after accepting three months of rent.

property

This case involved a workers' compensation claim where claimant Victoria Kloepfer sought benefits for a back injury sustained during physical therapy at a work hardening center for a prior arm condition. The Workers' Compensation Court awarded her benefits and costs but disallowed the $750 fee charged by her treating physician for a deposition, relying on precedents from Witty v. Pluid and Baeta v. Don Tripp Trucking that limited expert witness fees to $10 per day under § 26-2-501, MCA. On appeal, the Montana Supreme Court reversed, holding that those cases did not require applying the statutory fee limit to workers' compensation proceedings. The Court reasoned that § 25-10-201(9), MCA, permits recovery of reasonable and necessary expenses according to the established practice of the Workers' Compensation Court, which has historically included physician deposition costs in such cases.

labor & employmentprocedure

This case is an appeal from a district court's designation of Ronald Evans as a dangerous offender following his guilty plea to negligent vehicular homicide and two counts of negligent vehicular assault after a drunk-driving collision that killed an infant and seriously injured two adults. The Montana Supreme Court held that the record contained substantial evidence supporting the designation, including Evans's extensive juvenile criminal history, continued drinking, lack of remorse, and arrest for disorderly conduct while on bond. However, the court remanded the case because the district court failed to articulate specific reasons for the designation and instead merely repeated statutory language and general considerations from the presentence report and case law. The opinion clarifies that under § 46-18-404, MCA, a sentencing court must state particular findings drawn from the record when designating an offender as dangerous for parole purposes.

criminal lawprocedure