Twin City Technical v. Williams Cty

Citations

• 971 N.W.2d 822
• 2022 ND 63

Syllabus

The law of the case doctrine applies when an appellate court has decided a legal question and remanded to the district court for further proceedings, and a party cannot on a second appeal relitigate issues which were resolved by the Court in the first appeal or which would have been resolved had they been properly presented in the first appeal. The mandate rule requires the district court to follow the appellate court's pronouncements on legal issues in subsequent proceedings in the case and to carry the appellate court's mandate into effect according to its terms. Laches is a delay or lapse of time in commencing an action that works a disadvantage or prejudice to the adverse party because of a change in conditions during the delay. A court has broad discretion under N.D.C.C. § 32-03-05 in determining whether to award prejudgment interest. In an equitable proceeding there is no absolute right to a trial by jury. Under N.D.R.Civ.P. 37(a)(1), a party moving for an order compelling discovery must certify that it has in good faith conferred or attempted to confer with the person or party failing to make discovery in an effort to obtain it without court action. The Court reviews an order compelling discovery under the abuse of discretion standard. A district court is considered an expert in determining the amount of attorney's fees, and its decision concerning the amount and reasonableness of the attorney's fees will not be overturned on appeal absent a clear abuse of discretion. Electronic legal research fees are a component of attorney's fees and cannot be separately taxed as expenses.