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U.S. District Court won't hear lot line dispute COURT By MONICA LUNDQUIST Cass County Correspondent WALKER -- The U.S. District Court, in a document filed Aug. 25, ruled a Cass County couple cannot appeal in that court the earlier county/state court decisions involving their lot line dispute with their neighbors.
Bonnie and James Willhite began their legal dispute with Cass County and their neighbors in the mid-1990s after the county environmental services department told them to remove items from property the neighbors, Don and Cheryl Collins, owned.
The Willhites contended the property belonged to them and took the issue to county district court.
Cass County District Court Judge Michael Haas ruled in 2000 that two surveys conducted to that point placed the disputed section of land between the two landowners in the Collins' possession. He ordered the Willhites to remove all their personal property from that land.
The Willhites commissioned another land survey in 2002, which indicated the disputed land area fell into their property, not the Collins'.
They took this issue back to county district court where Haas ruled, "The time for finding mistakes has passed." He also found the Willhites in contempt of court for failing to comply with his previous order.
Later in 2002, represented by a new attorney, David M. VanSickle, the Willhites began another action challenging the boundary. Cass County District Court Judge John P. Smith dismissed their claims and ruled Haas' order already set the boundary.
Smith imposed sanctions against VanSickle for failing to prevent repeated litigation over matters that had been finally adjudicated.
The Willhites brought the issue back to Cass County District Court before Judge David Harrington in June 2004. Harrington found the Willhites in contempt for failure to comply with Haas' original order and said the matter would not be revisited.
The Willhites then approached U.S. District Court, claiming Minnesota law unconstitutional based upon a perceived conflict with the federal land survey law.
U.S. District Judge James M. Rosenbaum's August order on behalf of that court dismissed the Willhites' federal claims and dismissed remaining state law claims.
The order further stipulates the Willhites' attorney, VanSickle, must show cause by Sept. 19 why he should not be sanctioned by the federal court "for bringing a clearly barred action and causing defendants to sustain costs and attorneys' fees in relation thereto."
The federal court also asks VanSickle to provide information to the court on any prior sanctions he has received since 1995 and is "directed to address whether he ought to be disbarred or suspended from the practice of law at the bar of this (federal district) court."
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