MANSFIELD , Justice . I. Introduction. This case, involving an alleged scheme to inflate the purchase price of a general aviation jet aircraft, presents the question of what must be shown to avoid the effects of a contractual forum-selection clause. Is fraud in general enough, or does the fraud have to relate specifically to the clause Joining the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws, the United States Supreme Court, and a number of our fellow state supreme courts, we conclude...
MANSFIELD , Justice . The Bakken Oil Field has made North Dakota the second leading oil-producing state in our country. Almost all of America's oil-refining capacity, however, is located elsewhere in the nation. For this reason, an underground crude oil pipeline was proposed that would run from western North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa to an oil transportation hub in southern Illinois. Following a lengthy administrative proceeding, the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) approved the...
WATERMAN , Justice . This appeal, submitted with Iowa State Education Ass'n v. State, 928 N.W.2d 11 (Iowa 2019), also filed today, presents constitutional challenges to the 2017 amendments to the Public Employment Relations Act, Iowa Code chapter 20. The amendments ended payroll deductions for union dues and narrowed the scope of mandatory collective bargaining topics for bargaining units comprised of less than thirty percent "public safety employees," defined to include most police...
WATERMAN , Justice . This appeal, submitted with AFSCME Iowa Council 61 v. State, 928 N.W.2d 21 (Iowa 2019), also filed today, presents constitutional challenges to the 2017 amendments to Iowa Code chapter 20, the Public Employment Relations Act (PERA). The amendments ended payroll deductions for union dues and narrowed the scope of mandatory collective bargaining topics for bargaining units comprised of less than thirty percent "public safety employees," defined to include most police...
MANSFIELD , Justice . In this case we are called upon to review the decisions of a county board of supervisors approving a wind energy ordinance and a specific wind energy project. Although the challengers raise a number of well-presented arguments, in the end we conclude they were matters for the board of supervisors—not the courts—to resolve. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court granting summary judgment and dismissing the plaintiffs' claims. I. Background Facts and...
MANSFIELD , Justice . In this case we are asked to review a longstanding Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) legal standard for when a series of wind turbines constitute an "electric power generating plant or combination of plants at a single site" within the meaning of Iowa Code section 476A.1(5) (2017). The statute itself does not provide an obvious answer. Each wind turbine on its own generates energy, but wind turbines are often combined into "wind farms" or "wind projects" dispersed over a wide...
APPEL , Justice . In this case, employees and former employees of an Iowa manufacturing company brought a common law tort claim against the employer's workers' compensation insurance carrier. The claim alleged that the insurance carrier failed to conduct or negligently conducted an insurance inspection at the company's manufacturing facility and that the omission or action caused serious health problems for plaintiffs. The insurance carrier moved to dismiss the petition based on Iowa Code...
APPEL , Justice . In this case, a farmer sued his neighbor's heirs, claiming, among other things, that he and the decedent entered into an option contract to purchase farmland that was subject to a written lease and upon which the farmer made substantial improvements at his expense. In the alternative, the farmer sought to recover under various equitable theories of promissory estoppel, quantum meruit, and unjust enrichment. A jury found in favor of the plaintiff on his contract claim and...
MANSFIELD , Justice . I. Introduction. This appeal requires us to decide whether, before May 11, 2017, Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) Motor Vehicle Enforcement (MVE) officers could issue traffic citations unrelated to operating authority, registration, size, weight, and load. Two motorists were separately cited by MVE officers in 2016 for speeding in a construction zone. They sought declaratory orders that MVE officers lacked authority to stop vehicles and issue these citations....
MANSFIELD , Justice . This case, although procedurally different from Rilea v. Iowa Department of Transportation, 919 N.W.2d 380 , 2018 WL 5090853 (Iowa 2018), presents many of the same issues. A motorist was stopped in August 2016 by an Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) Motor Vehicle Enforcement (MVE) officer for speeding in a construction zone. The MVE officer then determined that the motorist's driver's license had been revoked pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 321J. He arrested...
DECISION WITHOUT PUBLISHED OPINION An applicant requests further review of a court of appeals decision affirming the district court's denial of his application for postconviction relief. DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED. DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
HECHT , Justice . The parties executed a premarital agreement waiving the right to seek an award of attorney fees in the event of a dissolution of their marriage. During their subsequent dissolution proceeding, the parties litigated issues pertaining to physical custody of the two minor children, child support, spousal support, and property division. One of the parties requested an award of attorney fees arising from litigating issues of child custody, child support, and spousal support,...
PER CURIAM . We vacate the decision of the court of appeals, reverse the judgment of the district court, and remand the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with our holding in Schmidt v. State, 909 N.W.2d 778 (Iowa 2018). DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENT REVERSED AND REMANDED. This opinion shall not be published.
ZAGER , Justice . An attorney removed from his elected position as Van Buren County Attorney challenges the district court order for his removal. Chapter 66 of the Iowa Code authorizes a district court to remove "[a]ny appointive or elective officer, except such as may be removed only by impeachment, holding any public office in the state or in any division or municipality thereof" in certain circumstances. Iowa Code 66.1A (2015). We must now decide whether an elected county attorney was...
WATERMAN , Justice . In this appeal, we must decide whether the district court correctly granted summary judgment dismissing the plaintiff's disability discrimination claims. The plaintiff, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), applied for a full-time job as a firefighter. The defendant City declined to hire him after the physician performing its preemployment physical examination reported the applicant was not medically qualified for the position. The physician made that determination based on...
ZAGER , Justice . The plaintiffs are the owners and/or residents of real estate located near the confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) owned and operated by the defendants. The plaintiffs have brought suit against the defendants, claiming the defendants are negligent in their operation of the CAFOs. The plaintiffs also contend the CAFOs constitute a nuisance that entitles the plaintiffs to damages for the loss of use and enjoyment of their property due to the odors, pathogens, and...
APPEL , Justice . In this case, we consider wrongful-termination-of-employment and failure-to-hire claims brought by Joseph Walsh, a former chief administrative law judge of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Bureau in Iowa Workforce Development (IWD), against the then-IWD director Teresa Wahlert and against the State. Walsh brought two claims. First, Walsh alleged retaliation under the whistleblower protection provisions of Iowa Code section 70A.28 (2014). The thrust of Walsh's...
APPEL , Justice . In this interlocutory appeal, Marlon Mormann, an applicant for the position of Deputy Workers' Compensation Commissioner at Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) calls upon us to determine whether the statutory requirement that complaints be filed with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (ICRC) within 300 days of the discriminatory act may be tolled through application of the discovery rule or equitable estoppel. See Iowa Code 216.15(13) (2015). If we determine these equitable...
ZAGER , Justice . Claimant Kelly Brewer-Strong contends the workers' compensation commissioner wrongly denied her healing period benefits under Iowa Code section 85.34(1) (2016). Brewer-Strong filed a petition seeking workers' compensation benefits after developing bilateral carpal tunnel injuries allegedly arising out of and in the course of her employment with HNI Corporation (HNI). HNI originally denied liability for the claimed injuries. Brewer-Strong filed a petition for alternate...
CADY , Chief Justice . In this appeal, we address a number of claims within a lawsuit by two female parishioners and their spouses against a church based on claims of negligence and defamation involving sexual abuse and exploitation perpetrated on the women by the church pastor and the subsequent response by the governing body of the church. The district court granted summary judgment for the church on all claims except negligent supervision, but found the negligent-supervision claims...
