Court Opinion

ID: 9858958
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 17:47:40.334763+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:58:44.443175
License: Public Domain

PEDERSON, Justice,
dissenting.
I believe that Justice VandeWalle overlooks a couple of critical points and thus reaches the wrong conclusion. If any contract is ambiguous (and the majority here finds that the agreement between Stella and Evelyn is ambiguous), we are directed by §§ 9-07-14 and 9-07-19, NDCC, to interpret it as Evelyn understood it and most strongly against Stella, because she caused the uncertainty to exist. The cases have labeled contracts which are not “arms-length” agreements, drafted by one party and merely “adhered” to by the other, as “contracts of adhesion.” See, for example, St. Ex Rel. Hagen, Etc., v. Bismarck Tire Ctr., 234 N.W.2d 224, 225 (N.D.1975). Strict scrutiny should be the standard. Farmers Union Grain Terminal Ass’n v. Nelson, 223 N.W.2d 494 (N.D.1974).
If the law, or precedent, or even logic, supports a philosophy of protection of “family” corporations, it should not be applied in this case. Everyone in the Mann-SorlieNess family is out, or trying to get out, of the business of the Bismarck Tribune. I see no conduct by any of the parties which reflects other than a desire to get out with the most profit. I would treat this as if it were a legal dispute between Lee Enterprises, Inc., and Logansport Newspapers, Inc., apply Rule 52(a), NDRCivP, to the findings of fact, apply a strict construction so far as the conclusions of law are concerned, and reverse the judgment.