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MARSHALL -- A lawsuit brought against the owners of the Broadmoor Valley mobile home park by the Minnesota Attorney General's Office will be heading back to court.
This week, the Minnesota Court of Appeals granted a new trial for claims about the condition of Broadmoor Valley's roads, as well as claims that the park owners violated consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices laws.
The Appeals Court also granted a judgment that Broadmoor Valley owners charged tenants illegally high late rent fees, and ordered the district court to determine remedies for failures to keep the mobile home park in clean and sanitary condition.
New trial dates in the case have not been set yet, according to Lyon County District Court online records.
The Attorney General's Office sued Schierholz & Associates, the owners of Broadmoor Valley, in 2021. The lawsuit alleged that Schierholz & Associates had failed to maintain Broadmoor Valley and its streets to state standards; that residents were charged illegally high fees for late rent payments; and that Schierholz had retaliated against residents.
A civil trial in the suit was held in Marshall in 2025. At that time, a jury found that Shierholz & Associates had failed to keep Broadmoor Valley in clean, orderly and sanitary conditions, but company president Paul Schierholz did not knowingly participate in that failure. The jury's verdict came down in Schierholz's favor in four other claims in the lawsuit.
When Lyon County District Court Judge Tricia Zimmer denied a motion for a new civil trial in the lawsuit, the Attorney General's Office appealed.
On Monday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals released a decision granting part of the appeal. The Court of Appeals said it was sending counts of the lawsuit dealing with the condition of the roads in Broadmoor Valley, and counts dealing with claims of consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices, back to the district court for a new trial.
According to the decision, the district court was in error when it ruled that alleged road condition and consumer fraud violations were under a two-year statute of limitations. Claims brought under the Consumer Fraud Law have a longer, six-year limitation period, the Appeals Court decision said. The decision also said the court's instructions erroneously created a higher burden of proof for the jury to decide whether Schierholz & Associates violated state consumer fraud laws.
The decision also said there was legal precedent to apply state laws about deceptive trade practices to residential leases.
The Appeals Court's ruling upheld part of the district court's past decisions. The Appeals Court upheld the decision to dismiss claims that Schierholz & Associates retaliated against Broadmoor Valley residents, and to strike Attorney General's Office's closing argument from the trial record.
Two other lawsuits against the Broadmoor Valley owners are still ongoing. In 2025, the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency sued Schierholz & Associates, alleging that by announcing plans to close Broadmoor Valley, Schierholz & Associates broke the conditions of a $500,000 grant agreement. The lawsuit also alleged that the Broadmoor owners raised rents at the park by more than 5% without prior approval from Minnesota Housing.
According to Ramsey County District Court records, an upcoming hearing in the lawsuit is set for Nov. 19, with a settlement conference on Feb. 26.
The city of Marshall also sued the Broadmoor Valley owners in 2025, alleging that they violated city ordinances by installing a locked gate at one of Broadmoor Valley’s only two entrances. Marshall ordinances require mobile home parks to have at least two entrances.
According to Lyon County District Court records, an upcoming hearing in the lawsuit is set for Oct. 2, with a pre-trial hearing on Dec. 29.