A Separation of Powers Dispute
In 1957, Minnesota was facing a political controversy over daylight savings time and Chief Justice Dell was facing a legal ethics conundrum. Although daylight savings time had been utilized during both World Wars, the debate about whether to make it permanent came to a head in that year’s legislative session. The legislation that was passed set a uniform daylight savings time, but appeared to allow Hennepin, Ramsey and contiguous counties and the city of Duluth to choose their own time if they wished. But the Minnesota Supreme Court, in response to a suit brought by movie theaters, held that the legislation barred the separate daylight savings time for the metro counties. For awhile, there was confusion over just what time it was in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
After the Court’s ruling, Attorney General Miles Lord issued an opinion that claimed the high court’s action had no effect on the counties. He even appeared on TV and radio, claiming that the Supreme Court had no right to issue its order and that the counties could legally set their own daylight savings time to go into effect despite the restraining order. The county attorneys of Ramsey, Hennepin and Anoka Counties followed that pronouncement.
The Court summoned the county attorneys and General Lord to explain themselves. It held, as to the county attorneys, that “although their action was ill-advised, they acted in good faith and that any disregard of our restraining order was due to a mistake of judgment rather than to any intentional defiance of the order. As to them we find no unethical conduct that would warrant any censureship.”
General Lord, however, refused to appear before the Court, arguing that he was a state executive officer and thus not subject to attorney discipline. Chief Justice Dell and the Court were in a dilemma — should they agree with Lord that they had no right to discipline him for unethical lawyer behavior or not? Finally, the Court issued a per curiam opinion rejecting Lord’s claim. Although the Court made it clear that it had the power to discipline the Attorney General as a licensed attorney, the Court ultimately relented on discipline, saying: “While the acts of the attorney general in this proceeding are of sufficient gravity to warrant formal disciplinary proceedings, we have concluded to limit our action at this time to a severe censure of what he has done. In doing so, we wish to have it understood that in no manner do we condone such action nor will we permit a repetition of it in the future.” The Court retained jurisdiction over the matter for three years to ensure that Attorney General Lord would not repeat the behavior.
As the Court noted, the underlying dispute was temporarily resolved with passage of a bill that allowed the governor to adopt daylight savings time for the whole state; and in 1966, Congressional action on daylight savings time pre-empted the state’s dispute. The controversy over what time Minnesota should be on continues today, with bills being introduced both in Congress and in the Minnesota legislature to institutionalize Daylight Savings Time throughout the year.
Early Years in the Law
Roger Dell was anxious to get his law degree. He bypassed college, going straight to St. Paul College of Law, which he attended by commuting by train to evening classes. He graduated in 1920 and was admitted to the Minnesota bar on October 7 of that year. He began his practice as an associate of James E. Brown in Fergus Falls but Brown died shortly after Dell became his partner. Dell hired a number of part-time or temporary associates until April 1933 when he and Chester G. Rosengren formed the firm of Dell and Rosengren, and they were joined by Gerald S. Rufer in January 1947.
Dell was a well-known trial lawyer in both civil and criminal cases. He had an “intense fighting spirit” and was so successful in large personal injury cases against insurance companies that some of them hired him to represent them if they were willing to turn over all trial decisions to him.
Governor C. Elmer Anderson appointed Dell to the Supreme Court on January 12, 1953. Dell subsequently was named Chief Justice in July of the same year, the first alumnus of MHSL legacy schools to serve as Chief Justice. He was re-elected to his seat in 1954 and 1960, retiring on January 24, 1962.
Before he was appointed to the Supreme Court, Dell was active in local, state and national bar associations, serving as the president of the Otter Tail County Bar Association and on the Rules Committee of the Minnesota State Bar Association. Just before his appointment to fill the seat of retiring Justice C.R. Magney, he was the chair of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airport Commission from 1950-1953. He also was president of the Fergus Radio Corporation which ran radio station KDGE out of Fergus Falls. In 1954, Republican party officials who were aware of his reputation among the state’s lawyers, tried to persuade him to leave the Court to run against Senator Hubert Humphrey, but he declined.
Dell was known as a Chief Justice who created significant unity on the Court, and for his conservative leadership and common sense. On his retirement, Governor Elmer Anderson noted that Dell had “uncompromising principles, high standards of excellence, a strong personality, and a talent for organization and procedure.” He wrote 181 majority opinions, 14 dissents and 8 concurring opinions. Unusually, Dell refused to move to St. Paul, taking the train from Fergus Falls to the Court and staying over at the St. Paul Athletic Club during the week.
One of Chief Justice Dell’s accomplishments was assisting the legislature in redrawing the state’s judicial districts in 1957. Dell spoke out in favor of reducing the number of judicial districts increasing the minimum number of judges in each district, and this legislation passed. He was also successful in getting more authority for the Chief Justice to supervise court calendars.
Personal Life
Roger L. Dell was born in Bird Island, Minnesota on July 19, 1897, to August and Ellen Dell. He attended school in Bird Island and Shakopee, graduating from Shakopee High School in 1916.
He was married to Marjory Webber in 1923 and she predeceased him on August 18, 1934. His second wife, Agnes Collier, whom he married in 1942, also predeceased him on December 17, 1964.
During World War I, Dell served briefly at the Field Artillery Central Officers Training School at Camp Zachary, Louisville, Kentucky.
After he retired from the Supreme Court in 1963, he spent many hours doing philanthropic work, particularly with the Episcopal Church. He also invested heavily in urban renewal in the business district of Fergus Falls as the chair of Fergus Properties. Dell and his wife created the Roger and Agnes Dell charitable trust, which continues to provide grants to churches and youth organizations. In the early 1960s, Chief Justice Dell also led a fundraising drive with Jim Kelley (SPCL 1917) to retire the mortgage on the William Mitchell building at 2100 Summit.
Though Dell was known as a very hard worker who read prodigiously and did not take much relaxation time for himself, he enjoyed duck hunting in Maine Township and trap shooting in the summer. He also did very well in a national trapshooting competition held every year at Vandalia, Ohio. The Fergus Falls Chamber of Commerce Sports Hall of Fame, established in 1986, later inducted Dell as one of its members.
Roger L. Dell died on March 8, 1966, at the age of 68.
References
Testimony: Remembering Minnesota’s Supreme Court Justices (Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society, 2008)
100 Who Made a Difference (William Mitchell College of Law, 2001)
For the Record: 150 Years of Law & Lawyering in Minnesota (Minnesota State Bar Association, 1999)
Douglas R. Heidenreich, With Satisfaction and Honor: William Mitchell College of Law 1900-2000 (William Mitchell College of Law, 1999)
Roger L. Dell, Associate Justice 1953; Chief Justice 1953-1962, https://mncourts.libguides.com/Dell/resources
Roger L. Dell, Fergus Falls, Succeeds Justice Magney on Supreme Court Bench, 10 Bench & B. Minn. 1 (1953).
Tom Hintgen, Fergus man headed supreme court, Fergus Falls Journal, October 19, 2009, https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/fergus-man-headed-supreme-court/article_2bb4a9ef-265c-5752-98a1-2667b342ac44.html
State ex rel Minnesota Amusement Co. v. County Board of Ramsey County Commrs., 255 Minn. 413, 96 N.W.2d 580 (1959)
In re Lord, 255 Minn. 370, 97 N.W.2d 287 (Minn. 1959)
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME, https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hinfo/swkly/1995-96/select/time.txt
“Roger L. Dell, 68, Former State Chief Justice, Dies,” Fergus Falls Daily Journal (Minnesota), March 9, 1966, pg. 1