The Minnesota Corporate Practice of Medicine Doctrine
Can a non-physician own all or part of a for-profit company that employs doctors to provide medical care in Minnesota? Pursuant to Minnesota’s corporate practice of medicine doctrine (“CPMD”) the answer is “no.” This legal doctrine is not found in a statute, regulation or rule. It comes from the common law of decisions by Minnesota […]
Minnesota Arbitration Law – Recent Decisions Clarify Role of District Court
Arbitration is intended to avoid traditional courtroom experiences. At times, however, courts become involved if parties must be compelled into the arbitration process. At other times, courts become involved to confirm an arbitration award after the arbitration process has concluded. A pair of recent decisions from U.S. District Court of Minnesota help to clarify the […]
Minnesota Court of Appeals Clarifies Procedure for Mandatory Buy-Out of Minority Shareholder Interests Pursuant to a Motion
Introduction The Minnesota Court of Appeals weighed in on the closely-followed Lund family litigation involving the efforts of Respondent Kim Lund to divest herself of ownership, held through trusts, of three privately held Lund family business entities forming the Lunds & Byerlys grocery store empire in a decision issued on January 14, 2019, Kim A. […]
Minnesota Supreme Court Holds a Non-Compete Agreement Cannot Mandate an Injunction
In St. Jude Med., Inc. v. Carter, 913 N.W.2d 678 (Minn. June 27, 2018), the Minnesota Supreme Court was asked to decide whether an injunction was mandatory in a non-compete dispute when the terms of the non-compete agreement stated that the employer was entitled to an injunction if the employee breached the agreement. The Court […]
Clarifying an Employment Agreement
Ambiguities in contracts breed litigation. Recently, the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota issued a ruling in Riddle v. Geckobyte.com, Inc. concerning the ambiguity and vagueness of the parties’ employment contract. The decision demonstrates how unclear contracts keep parties in court and out of business. Background of the Dispute Plaintiff Jeffrey Riddle […]
The Legal Difference Between a Minnesota Employee and Independent Contractor
Imagine your employment requires you to bill your employer on a per-job basis but your employer supplies all the necessary equipment to complete requested projects. Or imagine that your company manages a property and regularly use one individual for maintenance work on that property, paid by the hour, who also works on other properties not […]
Understanding A Lawsuit In Minnesota
At some point you or someone you know may become a party to a lawsuit. Lawsuits typically follow a common path. Although the rules and procedures that apply to each case may differ slightly depending on the type of case and jurisdiction, the most common and basic structure of a lawsuit involves initial pleadings, discovery, […]
Obama Issues Executive Order Requiring Federal Contractors to Grant Paid Sick Leave
On September 7, 2015, in honor of the Labor Day holiday, President Obama issued Executive Order 13706 requiring federal contractors to offer their employees up to 7 days of paid sick leave annually, including paid leave for family care. The White House justified the need for the directive in a press release emphasizing that the […]
Minneapolis Voters Repeal the 70-30 Food-to-Alcohol Ratio Law
Minneapolis voters have scrapped the 70-30 food-to-alcohol ratio law that affected bars and restaurants located in Minneapolis’ residential neighborhoods. By a vote of over 80%, Minneapolis city residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of scrapping the archaic law on the city’s November 4, 2014 ballot. Going back as far as the 1800s, restaurants in Minneapolis’ residential […]
Minneapolis City Council Repeals the 60-40 Food-to-Alcohol Ratio Law
A much anticipated and welcomed change recently took place affecting Minneapolis bars and restaurants in commercial areas. Since 1983, restaurants in commercial areas outside of downtown Minneapolis were required to follow a city ordinance that required the restaurants to maintain a 60-40 food-to-alcohol ratio. On Friday, September 19, 2014, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously eliminated […]