Latest News
Holiday Open House – Dec. 15, 2021, @ 4pm
We invite our clients and friends to join us as we reflect on the past year and say "Thank You" for your business and friendships. What better time to do that than during the holidays. This year, we also want to highlight an important office transition from...
WHOLE FARM CROP INSURANCE POLICIES: BEWARE
Our law firm has handled several claims arising from crop insurance agents selling “Whole Farm” crop insurance policies. This is not a product that should be sold in South Dakota. It’s not designed for the kinds of farming operations in our state. If you have been...
Crop Insurance Litigation Experience
In South Dakota, farmers and ranchers purchase various crop insurance products to protect themselves. When purchasing insurance, farmers and ranchers rely on their crop insurance agent to describe what insurance product fits their operation and how that insurance will...
Below you will find a summary of some of the recent developments in cases successfully litigated by Schoenbeck & Erickson, P.C.,
as well as some of the previous cases successfully litigated as a sample of our experience and success in the cases accepted by our firm.
- Personal Injury
- Insurance Litigation
- Commercial Litigation
- Professional Negligence
- Estate Planning Litigation
Supreme Court Win for Widow in Death Case
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled for our client, who was wrongfully denied widow’s benefits when her husband was killed on the job at the City of Miller. James “Boney” Bonebright was killed when a trench caved in. The City had a practice of trenching sewer lines...
Schoenbeck Law wins a favorable decision for Rita Fix in the South Dakota Supreme Court in Fix v. First State Bank of Roscoe
The South Dakota Supreme Court in Fix v. First State Bank of Roscoe, 2011 S.D. 80, 807 N.W.2d 612, returned a favorable decision for Rita Fix, a client of Schoenbeck Law. A Faulk County jury had already found that First State Bank of Roscoe and the Edmunds County...
Day County jury returned a $300,000 verdict
A Day County jury returned a $300,000 verdict for a local farmer for back injuries arising from a 1999 car accident. At that time, it was the largest verdict ever returned in Day County, and it reaffirms that local juries understand what a back injury means in the...
Wegleitner v. Hartford Insurance
After the South Dakota Supreme Court's refusal to permit a dram shop cause of action, we tried a jury trial in Marshall County against the underinsurance carrier on October 1, 1998, and obtained a verdict of $600,000 for our client. At that time, it was the largest...
$700,000 Underinsured Motorist Verdict
On behalf of a couple who were in an automobile accident in Brown County, that was tried in Day County, we obtained a $700,000 verdict for underinsured motorist (UIM) benefits against Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company.
Schoenbeck Law obtains $2.4 million verdict against Nationwide
In Day County, South Dakota, a jury returned a $2.4 million bad faith and breach of insurance contract verdict against Nationwide Insurance. We tried the case over a two-week period. The jury was unanimous. Nationwide's use of improper training and incentives with...
Schoenbeck Law settles an insurance bad faith suit against National Farmers Union for $425,000
Schoenbeck Law settled an insurance bad faith suit against National Farmers Union for $425,000. NFU is owned by an Australian conglomerate, QBE. NFU was using a method of adjusting property claims that cheated its insureds. Our specialty is in digging through the...
Post-Claim Underwriting Found In Newborn’s Life Insurance Policy
Schoenbeck Law completed an insurance bad faith claim against a company in 2008 that provided life insurance for newborns. In this case the child died within a few months of birth, and the company refused to pay the death benefits. When the mother submitted the life...
“Deny First” Strategy of Health Insurance Carrier Comes to Light in Bad Faith Case
Schoenbeck Law exposed a "deny first" strategy of a South Dakota health insurance carrier. The carrier denied coverage for an expensive medical procedure, ignored letters and reports from medical providers, and refused to follow the health insurance policy until we...
Bad Faith Litigation with Safeco Insurance
In a Roberts County case in the Fifth Judicial Circuit against Safeco Insurance Company, we obtained a favorable verdict on the underlying personal injury case, and pursued Safeco for its unreasonable conduct in handling the claim. In that setting, it is an...
Bad Faith Victory
The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a jury verdict against American Family Insurance in Biegler v. American Family Ins., 2001 S.D. 13, 621 N.W.2d 592. The original verdict is discussed below. The Supreme Court reduced the amount of the judgment to $165,000, which...
Bad Faith Victory
The South Dakota Supreme Court once again reaffirmed that an insured can sue their insurance company for bad faith in handling a claim in a case we brought before the Court (Brooks v. Milbank Insurance Company, 2000 S.D. 16, 605 N.W.2d 173). After the Court's...
Insurance Coverage Victory
Circuit Judge Robert Timm handed down a decision determining more than $1,000,000 of insurance coverage was available for our client and other victims. The factual setting in which the case arose is as follows: A car accident occurred on February 14, 1998. The...
Jury Finds Insurance Company Commits Fraud on Small Businessman:
A Brown County jury returned a $245,000 verdict for our client, an Aberdeen small businessman, against his insurance company, American Family Mutual Insurance Company. Three and a half years earlier, a customer was injured by an employee at the businessman's...
WIND ENERGY WIN BEFORE SUPREME COURT ON DEUEL COUNTY WIND ENERGY PROJECT
Schoenbeck Law had the opportunity to serve with the Fredrikson & Byron firm on the Deuel Harvest case that was handed down on February 10, 2021. A unanimous Supreme Court ruled for us in reversing the trial court, that had disqualified two members of the Deuel...
Buffalo Trial Verdict
Attorney Schoenbeck argued before the Supreme Court on January 8, 2019, in the case of Mealy v. Prins. Our opponents were not happy with the Roberts County jury verdict results and appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court affirmed summary...
Schoenbeck Law Wins Commercial Ranch Dispute in Supreme Court
September 25, 2019 The South Dakota Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a win we achieved in the trial court for our clients, Bryce and Barry Healy and their family ranch corporation, in a lawsuit brought against them by their brother, Bret Healy. Bret made assorted...
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms Award of Attorney’s Fees and Punitive Damages against First State Bank of Roscoe and its President, John Beyers
For 12 years, we have been representing the Stablers in their ongoing battle with the First State Bank of Roscoe and its president, John Beyers. The earlier decisions appear elsewhere on this website. On January 30, 2019, a panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of...
Federal District Judge Affirms Award of Attorney’s Fees and Punitive Damages of $209,605.77 Against First State Bank of Roscoe and Its President, John Beyers
After the Supreme Court affirmed the McPherson County verdict against John Beyers and First State Bank of Roscoe, we sought recovery in Bankruptcy Court for First State of Roscoe and John Beyers' violation of the automatic stay in initiating their litigation against...
Supreme Court upholds fraud verdict against First State Bank of Roscoe and its President John Beyers
The South Dakota Supreme Court upheld the verdict we obtained on behalf of an elderly farm couple who was defrauded by their bank, First State Bank of Roscoe, and their banker, John Beyers. The South Dakota Supreme Court also reinstated the punitive damage award...
Schoenbeck Law proves bank and banker committed fraud against elderly couple
A McPherson County jury found that a Roscoe bank and its president acted fraudulently in inducing a Eureka couple to sign a $650,000 promissory note and mortgage in March 2004. The jury decided that $439,100 of the note and mortgage was obtained by fraud. First State...
Banks Are Entitled To Be Treated Fairly Too
Schoenbeck Law had the honor and pleasure of successfully completing 2½ years of representation of an established South Dakota commercial institution in a banking litigation case involving a participating lending arrangement. Near the end of the litigation, we...
Investment Banking Dispute
The United States 8th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a win in an investment banking dispute involving a client of our office who assisted a meatpacker in obtaining financing for a meatpacking plant. After the financing was obtained, the meatpacker refused to pay...
Attorney Malpractice and Breach of Fiduciary Duty Verdict
A Grant County jury returned a verdict for $150,000 of principal and pre-judgment interest of approximately $45,000, for a total judgment of $195,000 in an attorney malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty case. The case was Harms v Boos. The jury took two hours to...
Attorney Malpractice: Two Supreme Court Wins
In Friske, et al. v. Hogan, 2005 S.D. 70, 698 N.W.2d 526, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled for the clients of Schoenbeck Law that an attorney may owe a duty to a will beneficiary, which ruling builds on the Supreme Court decision entered in Chem Age Industries,...
Medical Negligence
In a medical negligence case in Day County, South Dakota, we represented a victim of unnecessary multiple back surgeries. The victim had a non-operative compression fracture, but had the misfortune of being treated in the Avera St. Luke's emergency room by Dr. Britt...
Accountant Malpractice
Our office completed an accounting malpractice case which also obtained a favorable ruling from the trial court permitting us to go forward with a punitive damage claim against the accountant. Specific facts were presented to the trial court that showed a reasonable...
Will Dispute
On April 15, 2019, Lee Schoenbeck and Joe Erickson completed a three-day jury trial in Sioux Falls over a Will. The jury found for our clients on all the issues. The Will was challenged as to whether it was correctly signed by the testator and the witnesses, and also,...
Brown County Judge Awards Client $504,923.52 Of Wrongfully Taken Funds
At the end of the first day of a trial before Judge Portra in Brown County, the Judge granted our motion to require the return of $504,923.52 to a conservatorship. During the conservatorship, all of these funds were placed in accounts at the First State Bank of Roscoe...
Codington County Jury Awards $92,617.22 Judgment on Joint Accounts to Estate
After a two-day jury trial, a Codington County jury ruled for our client, the Personal Representative, in recovering two joint accounts. The niece had been added to the aunt’s joint accounts for convenience purposes. When the aunt died, the niece kept the accounts. We...
Codington County Jury Upholds Last Will and Testament
In a Codington County jury trial, we were successful in defending the wishes of a testator as reflected in her Last Will and Testament that was signed near the very end of her life. The Last Will and Testament left the bulk of her estate to charity. Two nieces...