If a civil action, including an action for appeal of a zoning decision, or special proceeding is dismissed or requested relief is denied and if the court determines that it was frivolous or brought for malicious purposes, the court shall order the party whose claim, cause of action, or defense was dismissed or denied to pay part or all expenses incurred by the party defending the matter, including reasonable attorneys' fees.
S.D. Codified Laws § 15-17-51
Liability of party for frivolous or malicious action
Applied in 23 court decisions — leading case Ridley v. Lawrence County Commission (2000)
Most recently applied in Dissolution of Healy Ranch, Inc. (March 2026)
Source: SL 1992, ch 148, § 16; SL 1997, ch 113, § 1; SL 2015, ch 114, § 1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.