Court Opinion

ID: 9884166
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:40:25.994596+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:38:03.006169
License: Public Domain

LANSING, Judge
(dissenting).
Whether to dismiss a case for failure to prosecute is within the trial court’s discretion. Stevens v. School Board of Ind. Dist. No. 271, 296 Minn. 413, 414-15, 208 N.W.2d 866, 867-68 (1973). The focal question in reviewing the court’s exercise of that discretion in this case is whether A.P.I., Inc., has demonstrated sufficient prejudice to warrant a dismissal of Anderson Company’s claim.
That claim, which is based on provisions of a 1974 contract, was initially filed in 1978 and has been dormant since interrogatories were exchanged and answered in 1979. Although the court acknowledged that there was little evidence of actual prejudice, it based its finding of prejudice on inferences drawn from the nature of the commercial transaction, the seven-year hiatus in litigation on a 12-year-old contract and the predictable effect of that passage of time on the memories of the witnesses. In the context of this case, I believe this is sufficient prejudice to support the court’s exercise of discretion.