The SD Supreme Court handed down one decision this morning, holding, inter alia:
1) Mother/Son Dispute addressed
Summary follows:
LANGBEHN v. LANGBEHN, 2025 S.D. 11: This dispute is between a Mother and her Son involving “a substantial amount of crop and pastureland in Beadle County,” which Mother and her Husband (Son’s father) owned during their marriage. Husband/Father died in March, 2008 and this litigation evolved. Below is the opening paragraph of the Court’s opinion (which gives an overview) and also the final paragraph of the Court’s opinion (which gives a summary of the result on appeal):
[¶1.] Mary Langbehn sued her son, Michael Langbehn, and his company, Langbehn Land and Cattle Co. (LL&C), alleging Michael breached his fiduciary duty as a co-trustee of his deceased father’s trust. Michael filed counterclaims for unjust enrichment and quantum meruit relating to improvements he claimed to have made to real estate he leased from his father’s trust and Mary’s separate living trust. The circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of Mary on her claims as well as on Michael’s counterclaims. The court also removed Michael as a co-trustee and awarded Mary $513,796.94 in damages. Michael appeals. We reverse.
***
[¶56.] Because Michael did not engage in impermissible self-dealing and genuine issues of material fact remain concerning whether Michael breached his fiduciary duty to the credit trust, we reverse the circuit court’s decision to grant summary judgment and its decision to remove him as a co-trustee. However, we affirm the court’s decision to grant summary judgment on Michael’s counterclaims. The case is remanded for further proceedings in part, affirm in part, and remand for further proceedings.
This decision is unanimous with opinion authored by Justice Salter.
This decision may be accessed at
