Fargo Women's Health Organization, Inc. v. FM Women's Help & Caring Connection

The failure of the plaintiff to clearly set forth the legal theory of its cause of action, the trial court’s reliance on Chapter 51-12 prohibiting false advertising to award damages for the actions of the defendants without consideration of whether that chapter created a cause of action for the plaintiff, and the majority’s rather expansive approval thereof cause me to write separately.

Although violation of a statute may be both a crime and a tort, it is simplistic to observe there may be both a civil tort action and a criminal prosecution for the same act. As an example, Dahlen v. Landis,…