In 2022, Dean Zimmerli represented a landowner in Kandiyohi County whose agricultural drainage was wrongfully blocked by a downstream neighbor on the shared private ditch. When no negotiated resolution could be reached, he presented his client’s case to a jury, demonstrating that the client’s crop losses were caused by the neighbor’s obstruction of the ditch and presenting analysis on the amount of the loss. The jury awarded significant damages in his client’s favor, and the judge issued an injunction ordering that the obstruction to the ditch be removed. Dean Zimmerli was therefore able to ensure the past crop losses were paid for, and that the neighbor would no longer be able to cause future losses.
