Court Opinion

ID: 9687548
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:34:36.761077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:28.633451
License: Public Domain

STRINGER, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
Respondents’ claim that appellants had a duty to protect them from the conduct of a third party is, as the majority points out, based on the existence of a special relationship between the parties. Their negligent misrepresentation claim is based on an entirely different duty, however. Since appellants’ motion for summary judgment was based solely on the contention that “the Defendants did not have a duty to protect the Plaintiff from the criminal acts of a third party,” the duty underlying the negligent misrepresentation claim raised in paragraph 28 of plaintiffs complaint was never put in issue by appellants’ summary judgment motion. The trial court erred in considering appellants’ motion for summary judgment with respect to the negligent misrepresentation allegation in a telephone conference, without notice to respondents as required by Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.03, and with no opportunity for either party to submit briefs. The next day the court compounded the error when it granted summary judgment on the misrepresentation claim, erroneously con-*418eluding that in the absence of “special circumstances,” there was no duty. I would therefore affirm the court of appeals reversing the order for summary judgment on the misrepresentation claim and remanding for trial applying the standard set forth in Florenzano v. Olson, 387 N.W.2d 168 (Minn. 1986).