April 2020 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, William P. Kelly, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Bower, C.J.  (3 pages)

            Preston Brittain appeals the sentences imposed following his pleas of guilty to three counts of sexual abuse in the third degree.  He contends the district court abused its discretion in imposing a prison term instead of suspending the sentences.  OPINION HOLDS: Finding no abuse of the court’s sentencing discretion, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mark R. Lawson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Bower, C.J.  (3 pages)

            Deonta Sistrunk appeals his sentence for second degree theft.  He claims the court ordered an illegal sentence, challenging the value of the item taken.  OPINION HOLDS: Sistrunk’s claim is not one of an illegal sentence.  We find the court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing and affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Des Moines County, Daniel P. Wilson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (13 pages)

            The plaintiff appeals the district court ruling granting summary judgment in favor of the defendant in the plaintiff’s lawsuit for defamation, violation of the whistleblower statute, and intentional infliction of emotion distress.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment on all counts.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Mary E. Chicchelly, Judge.  AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, P.J.  (12 pages)

            Charles Jones and his limited liability company, Green Development Sokol, appeal the district court’s award of $17,708—plus interest and attorney fees—to Nesset, Inc. doing business as Weber Paint and Glass.  Jones and Green Development raise three issues.  First, they complain Weber Paint misjoined its equitable action to foreclose a mechanic’s lien with a breach of contract claim.  Second, Jones alleges the district court mistakenly held him personally liable for the breach.  And third, they claims the court should have reduced Weber Paint’s award based on deficiencies in the work that company performed.  OPINION HOLDS: We grant relief on one of the appellants’ three claims.  They waived their first claim by failing to timely raise the misjoinder issue.  But on Jones’s second claim, we agree the court misapplied the burden of proof in imposing personal liability.  On the third issue, the court properly rejected an offset based on the appellants’ allegations of Weber Paint’s substandard performance.  Finally, we remand for the district court to award reasonable appellate attorney fees to Weber Paint, as the prevailing plaintiff.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Johnson County, Mary E. Chicchelly, Judge.  SENTENCE VACATED AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.  Considered by Bower, C.J., Greer, J., and Carr, S.J.  Opinion by Carr, S.J.  (3 pages)

            Eric Cole appeals after pleading guilty to willful injury resulting in bodily injury and domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury.  OPINION HOLDS: Cole’s counsel was ineffective by failing to object to the prosecutor’s breach of the plea agreement.  We vacate his sentence and remand to the district court for resentencing before a different district court judge.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Romonda Belcher, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, J.  (7 pages)

            A juvenile appeals an order for restitution in a delinquency proceeding.  OPINION HOLDS: We find the evidence insufficient to support the court’s order for restitution as to the items of restitution challenged on appeal.  We affirm the restitution as to the victim’s insurance deductible but reverse as to the remaining amounts of restitution.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Story County, Angela L. Doyle, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Doyle and May, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (5 pages)

            Eddie Risdal appeals the district court’s dismissal of his application for postconviction relief, contending “the district court erred by rejecting [his claims] on procedural grounds” and postconviction counsel was ineffective in failing to recast his claims as constitutional issues.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the dismissal of Risdal’s 2018 postconviction-relief application.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Stuart P. Werling, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, P.J.  (6 pages)

            Michael Eskridge sold crystal methamphetamine to undercover police officer three times.  The district court sentenced him to a mandatory minimum of eight and one-third years.  In his allocution, Michael asked the court to consider letters and class certificates and to use its discretion to reduce the mandatory minimum sentence from 8.3 years to 5.6 years.  At the postconviction-relief (PCR) hearing, the PCR court denied his claim that because his trial attorney did not move to admit the letters or certificates into evidence his mandatory minimum sentence would have been different.  On appeal, Eskridge claims that trial counsel’s failure to enter the documents as exhibits at sentencing “cut off his ability to appeal the sentence in his case.”  OPINION HOLDS: Eskridge cannot show that had trial counsel offered letters and certificates into the record, a reasonable probability existed that he would have been successful in appealing an adverse sentencing decision.  Eskridge is not entitled to relief.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, David Porter, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, J.  (6 pages)

            T.M. appeals an order for his involuntary hospitalization, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the court’s conclusion he is seriously mentally impaired.  OPINION HOLDS: On our review, we find no serious or substantial doubts about the correctness of the district court’s conclusion drawn from the evidence that T.M. was seriously mentally impaired within the meaning of Iowa Code section 229.1(20) (2019).  As such, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Celene Gogerty, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  (8 pages)

            Vanessa Bruss appeals the district court’s grant of defendants’ motion to dismiss her petition for judicial review of a ruling from the worker’s compensation commission.  Bruss argues she substantially complied with Iowa Code section 17A.19(2) (2019) by seeking out and obtaining an agreement from respondents’ counsel to accept service within the ten-day period.  She further argues the respondents should be equitably estopped from arguing the district court lacks jurisdiction over her petition for judicial review.  OPINION HOLDS: Bruss did not substantially comply with section 17A.19(2) by obtaining an agreement from respondents’ counsel to accept service but not sending a copy of the petition to respondents’ counsel within the ten-day period.  Bruss did not meet her burden to prove the elements of equitable estoppel by clear and convincing evidence.  We affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Michael J. Shubatt, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Doyle and May, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (5 pages)

            Eldon and Barbara Jaeger appeal the district court’s order quieting title in Gerald and Donna Manemann to the disputed boundary line between the parties’ neighboring properties.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the district court’s finding of a boundary by acquiescence and its delineation of the boundary.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mary E. Howes, Judge. AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, J. (3 pages)          

            Justin Woods appeals his conviction, following a guilty plea, of manufacturing, delivering, or possessing methamphetamine with the intent to manufacture or deliver, claiming his counsel rendered ineffective assistance in failing to move for suppression of evidence obtained as an allegedly unconstitutional seizure.  OPINION HOLDS: We find the record inadequate to determine whether counsel failed to perform an essential duty or prejudice resulted.  We therefore affirm Woods’s conviction but preserve his ineffective-assistance claim for a possible postconviction-relief proceeding.