Notable Reported Cases

State Bank of Townsend v. Maryann’s (1982) 204 Mont. 21, 664 P.2d 295: Ruling permitting use of financial projections to establish damages.

State ex rel. Dep’t. of Public Service Regulation v. Montana Irrigators (1984) 209 Mont. 375, 680 P.2d 963: Ruling establishing basic concepts for use in ratemaking.

Montana Power Company v. Montana Public Service Commission (1984) 214 Mont. 82, 692 P.2d 432: Ruling establishing Public Service Commission’s use of discretion in setting utility rates.

Kimes v. Herrin (1985) 217 Mont. 330, 705 P.2d 108: Ruling requiring exclusion of evidence when its probative value outweighed by prejudice.

State Fund v. Chapman (1994) 267 Mont. 484, 885 P.2d 407: Ruling that Workers’ Compensation Court could not set aside its own judgment entered more than two years earlier.

Dagel v. Farmers Insurance Group (1995) 273 Mont. 402, 903 P.2d 1359: Ruling permitting pursuit of underinsurnace proceeds without exhausting underlying policy limits.

Bueling v. Swift 1998 MT 112: Ruling preventing multiple defendants from each having four peremptory challenges unless hostility is established.

Harding v. Deiss 2000 MT 169: Ruling that comparative negligence is not an appropriate defense in medical negligence case.

McCauley v. Thompson-Nistler 2000 MT 215: Ruling regarding evidence necessary to establish public prescriptive easement.

Dyess v. Meagher County 2003 MT 78: Ruling stating EMT trainee was not an employee for purposes of determining workers compensation exclusivity.

Edie v. Gray 2005 MT 224: Ruling stating that a tenant need not give a landlord notice of unsafe conditions and that failure to provide fit and habitable living space is violative of the Montana Residential Landlord Tenant Act as a matter of law.

Mlekush v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, 2017 MT 256.  Ruling that a person forced to sue their own car insurance company to retain the benefits under the policy is entitled to attorney fees if they exceed the last offer, prior to trial, by $1 or more (this case was a second appeal did not clearly define a rule and was appealed a second time.  The first appeal was Mlekush v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, 2015 MT 302).