Jon A. Stenquist

Parsons Behle & Latimer represented a cattle rancher who brought claims against a neighboring rancher for property damage, trespass, fence construction costs (Idaho Code section 35-103) and intentional driving of cattle onto the client’s land to graze without compensation. Parsons also successfully defended against the neighbor’s counterclaims, including a claim for prescriptive easement across the client’s lands. As the Supreme Court put it “This litigation stems from the contentious relationship between adjacent landowners over subjects as old as the American West: land, cattle, and fence lines.” On appeal, Parsons successfully obtained a reversal of the District Court who failed to award overgrazing damages, and successfully defended against the defendants’ issues raised on appeal.

Represented Chase Bank and successfully obtained summary judgment against claimants who raised multiple counterclaims including bad faith and predatory lending. The Supreme Court upheld the district court granting the lender’s motion for summary judgment and denied the borrowers’ motion to amend the counterclaims to add a fraud claim. The Supreme Court awarded Chase attorney fees on appeal.

A landowner brought suit against Parsons Behle & Latimer's lender client to extinguish a deed of trust that was recorded against the landowner's property. The landowner claimed that the lender's time to foreclose the deed of trust had expired. The district court denied a motion to enter default judgment in favor of the landowner, finding, among other things, that the statute of limitations to foreclose the deed of trust had not run. The district court entered a judgment dismissing the landowner's suit. The Supreme Court affirmed the district court's judgment.