CADY , Chief Justice . In this case, we are presented with the question whether a city discriminates under the Iowa Civil Rights Act and the Iowa Constitution by refusing to accommodate a pregnant employee with light duties when requested due to her pregnancy. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants, City of Clinton and three of its employees, finding as a matter of law no discrimination had occurred. On our review, we adapt our test for the evaluation of pregnancy...
HECHT , Justice . An employee of a tire manufacturer strained his back on the job. On the second anniversary of the incident, the manufacturer notified the employee that the limitations period had expired and no further medical services would be provided for treatment of the employee's injury. The employee filed a workers' compensation proceeding within thirty days after receiving the notice from his employer, but the workers' compensation commissioner concluded the statute of limitations...
CADY , Chief Justice . In this appeal, we must decide if the time to file a notice of appeal in an electronically filed case begins on the day the notice of filing is electronically transmitted or the day the court order from which the appeal is taken has been electronically filed. We conclude the notice of appeal from a final judgment or order of the district court must be filed within thirty days of the date the judgment or order was electronically filed, not the date of the notice of...
WATERMAN , Justice . In this appeal, we must decide whether the district court should have granted a new trial based on an allegedly inconsistent and inadequate jury verdict in a personal injury action arising from a motor vehicle accident. The jury initially awarded the plaintiff passenger nearly $17,000 in past medical expenses, but zero for pain and suffering. All parties agreed that the verdict was inconsistent, and the jury was instructed to resume deliberations to resolve the...
ZAGER , Justice . In this appeal we are asked to decide whether the State's role is "primarily adjudicative" when the Natural Resource Commission decides a contested case following an investigation and subsequent decision by the Department of Natural Resources to assess restitution. We find that the State's role in this case was primarily adjudicative, precluding an award of attorney fees. See Iowa Code 625.29(1)( b ) (2011). Therefore, we vacate the decision of the court of appeals and...
CADY , Chief Justice . The Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board charged attorney Michael Hocine Said with violating the rules of professional conduct for failing to communicate with his client, making a false statement to the court, and failing to comply with fee and trust account requirements. Following a hearing, the Grievance Commission of the Supreme Court of Iowa found Said violated several rules and recommended a thirty-day suspension. On our review, we find Said violated...
APPEL , Justice . A terminated employee appeals from a district court judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of her employer on her claim for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy. The employee contends the district court submitted instructions to the jury that were legally erroneous and confusing, and the district court should have granted her motion for a new trial. Upon our review, we affirm the judgment of the district court. I. Factual and Procedural Background. In...
HECHT , Justice . Recent decisions of this court have explored the constitutionality of criminal sentences for juvenile offenders. See generally State v. Lyle, 854 N.W.2d 378 (Iowa 2014); State v. Ragland, 836 N.W.2d 107 (Iowa 2013); State v. Pearson, 836 N.W.2d 88 (Iowa 2013); State v. Null, 836 N.W.2d 41 (Iowa 2013). Today we consider the nature and extent of a court's discretion in resentencing a juvenile offender convicted of a murder committed in 1987. Because we...
WIGGINS , Justice . A juvenile offender convicted of first-degree murder appeals his resentencing to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In this appeal, we determine the factors a court must use when it sentences a juvenile offender for first-degree murder. Because the district court did not have the benefit of this decision when it sentenced the juvenile, we vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing. We do not reach the issue as to whether a sentence of life in prison...
WATERMAN , Justice . In this case involving claims for misappropriation of trade secrets, we have before us an interlocutory appeal on a discovery issue. In particular, the plaintiffs ask us to review a district court order requiring the redesignation of the plaintiffs' standard operating procedures (SOPs) from "attorneys' eyes only" to "confidential." The underlying protective order allowed each party to designate highly sensitive proprietary or trade-secret information whose disclosure to...
WIGGINS , Justice . The parents of two children filed a claim for negligence against a city following a drowning in the municipal pool. The parents also filed a constitutional due process claim against the city for the drowning incident under the state-created danger doctrine. The city filed a motion for summary judgment claiming it had statutory immunity under Iowa Code section 670.4(12) (2009) as to the negligence claims. 1 Section 670.4(12) grants the city immunity from liability,...
CADY , Chief Justice . In this appeal, we consider the constitutionality of a warrantless search of the home of a parolee by a parole officer that uncovered evidence used to prosecute and convict the parolee of the crime of possession of a controlled substance as a habitual offender. We must determine whether the search was unconstitutional or was justified by the special needs of the State, based on a balancing of the governmental interests served by the search against the privacy interest...
WIGGINS , Justice . In 2013, the Iowa Board of Medicine passed a rule establishing standards of practice for physicians who prescribe or administer abortion-inducing drugs. These standards require the physician to personally perform a physical examination and to be physically present when the abortion-inducing drug is provided. It is not disputed the rule would have the effect of prohibiting telemedicine abortions in Iowa. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc. and Dr. Jill Meadows, M.D....
ZAGER , Justice . In October 2011, police began to suspect Clifford McNeal received stolen property from a burglary that occurred in Ottumwa, Iowa. Thereafter, they received an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen informing them that McNeal had moved a trailer from Ottumwa to a rural area in Wapello County, Iowa. After police confirmed the location of the trailer and that it belonged to a company McNeal owned, they obtained a search warrant for the trailer. Pursuant to the search warrant,...
MANSFIELD , Justice . In this case we are asked to determine whether the workers' compensation commissioner correctly interpreted Iowa Code section 85.27(2) as overriding the work product immunity and therefore requiring the disclosure of surveillance video of any claimant seeking workers' compensation benefits before the claimant is deposed. For the reasons set forth herein, we conclude that section 85.27(2) is limited to health-care-related privileges such as the physician-patient...
WATERMAN , Justice . This appeal presents a question of first impression in Iowa: whether the district court has discretion to end a marriage through a decree of dissolution without dividing the marital property until a later judgment. This two-step process is known as a "bifurcated divorce" and is expressly allowed by statute in other states. Iowa Code chapter 598 (2013) does not expressly permit such bifurcation. Our rules of civil procedure allow separate trials of issues, but can be...
MANSFIELD , Justice . During the 2013 legislative session, the Iowa General Assembly appropriated funds for the operation of the Iowa Juvenile Home (IJH) in Toledo for the 2014 fiscal year (July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014). Approximately five months into that fiscal year, the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) decided to close the home and find alternative, judicially approved placements for the twenty-one girls who resided there. Two state senators, two state representatives, and the...
CADY , Chief Justice . In this workers' compensation appeal, we are asked to revisit our rule governing apportionment resulting from successive work injuries at multiple places of employment in light of the 2004 amendments to the workers' compensation permanent disabilities statute. The deputy workers' compensation commissioner awarded benefits to the worker based on a finding of two successive injuries to the back and a shoulder injury and applied the full-responsibility rule with no...
WIGGINS , Justice . A city's board of review reclassified eighteen properties held by eleven multiple housing cooperatives from commercial to residential for property tax purposes. The city appealed the board's decision to the district court. The district court affirmed the board's decision on summary judgment. On appeal, we find that two Iowa corporations may organize a multiple housing cooperative under Iowa Code chapter 499A (2011). 1 We also find the Code does not require a one-...
APPEL , Justice . In this case, the Iowa City Board of Review (Board) appeals from a district court ruling that ordered the Board to reclassify twenty-two multiunit apartment buildings as residential property for tax assessment purposes. Classification of the property as residential would require the Board to tax the property at residential rather than commercial property tax rates. The Board appeals, contending Dolphin Residential Cooperative, Inc. (Dolphin) was not properly organized...
