Morrison Fenske & Sund

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Morrison Fenske & Sund, P.A., is comprised of experienced professionals working collaboratively to effectively and efficiently represent the interests of their clients. Established in 1991 with an emphasis on commercial real estate development and general representation of small to medium sized business ventures, the firm's areas of expertise have grown to include all aspects of real estate, commercial litigation, product liability litigation (including fire and explosion), insurance litigation, construction litigation, premises liability litigation, Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) defense, wealth transfer planning, and intellectual property. Morrison Fenske & Sund's Twin Cities offices are conveniently located in Minnetonka, a western suburb of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. Morrison Fenske & Sund is pleased to announce the opening of its office in Hibbing, Minnesota, providing full service business law and estate planning services for the northern communities.
We are proud of the growth of our client base, growth which can be mainly attributed to favorable recommendations from existing clients.
Morrison Fenske & Sund P.A. attorneys Ryan Dreyer and Kathleen Ghreichi obtained a reversal of the district court's ruling that an architect's lien was prior and superior to the lenders' $20 million mortgagee interests in a Minneapolis parcel purchased for development of the Riverview Homes Condominium Project. (Riverview Muir Doran et al v. KKE, A09-0312, 2009 WL 2928770 (Minn. App. Sept. 15, 2009).) In reversing the district court, the Minnesota Court of Appeals noted that in the absence of any visible, on-the-ground improvements, the architect's lien could only be superior if the lenders had actual notice of the architect's lien before recording the mortgages; the court of appeals determined that, in this case, the mortgagee interests were prior because the lenders had no "actual notice" of the architect's lien within the meaning of Minn. Stat. s 514.05, subd. 1, distinguishing Kirkwold Constr. Co. v. M.G.A. Constr., Inc., 513 N.W.2d 241 (Minn. 1994) where the lenders either "knew or should have known" the engineer had not been paid. The court of appeals ruled that the lenders' actual knowledge that some design work had been performed did not mean the lenders here "knew or should have known" the architect had not been paid for all its work -- particularly since, at the closing, the lender paid all known outstanding invoices for architectural work and the architect executed a partial lien waiver that failed to indicate any outstanding sums were due despite a specific space on the waiver for designating any such amounts.