Rustad v. Baumgartner

Citations

• 2020 ND 126

Syllabus

The \law of the case\ doctrine is the principle that if an appellate court has passed on a legal question and remanded the case to the court below for further proceedings, the legal question thus determined by the appellate court will not be differently determined on a subsequent appeal in the same case where the facts remain the same. The mandate rule, a more specific application of law of the case, requires the trial court to follow pronouncements of an appellate court on legal issues in subsequent proceedings of the case and to carry the appellate court's mandate into effect according to its terms. A parent moving to modify parenting time must show that a material change in circumstances has occurred since entry of the prior parenting time order and that modification is in the child's best interests. A district court's decision on parenting time is a finding of fact, which will not be reversed on appeal unless it is clearly erroneous.