2020 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Henry County, Mary Ann Brown and John M. Wright, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, J.  (7 pages)

            Jeffrey Hummell appeals his conviction for possession of methamphetamine, second offense, contending the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly or intentionally possessed the controlled substance.  OPINION HOLDS: Because we find the State presented sufficient evidence from which a jury could reasonably infer that Hummell had knowledge the items in his pocket contained methamphetamine, we affirm his conviction. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, Michael K. Jacobsen, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., May, J., and Mahan, S.J.  Opinion by Mahan, S.J.  (4 pages)

            Robert Wood Jr. appeals from the decree dissolving his marriage to Sarah Wood, challenging the district court’s decision to place physical care of their children to Sarah.  Robert requests physical care of the children or, in the event we affirm the court’s physical care decision, additional parenting time.  He also challenges the court’s attorney fee award to Sarah.  OPINION HOLDS: We find the district court’s factual determinations are supported by the record and affirm the physical care decision and attorney fee award.  We deny the parties’ requests for appellate attorney fees.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Story County, Amy M. Moore, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Doyle, P.J., Mullins, J., and Mahan, S.J.  Opinion by Mahan, S.J.  (10 pages)

            Lamont Williams appeals the district court’s denial of his application for postconviction relief, contending his trial counsel was ineffective in “fail[ing] to call witnesses” suggested by Williams and in “fail[ing] to object to prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments.”  OPINION HOLDS: Upon our review, we affirm the court’s order denying Williams’ application for postconviction relief.   

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County, Richard H. Davidson, Judge.  AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Doyle and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, J.  (16 pages)

            James Bojanski appeals from a dissolution decree denying his request for alimony and dividing the parties’ marital property.  On appeal, he seeks reversal of the denial of his alimony request and asks that we recalculate the value of the marital home for purposes of the distribution of marital property.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the denial of James’s alimony request.  We find it equitable to exclude any premarital credit on the parties’ home when calculating the portion of the home classified as marital property.  We determine a credit for gifted money.  We accordingly increase the property equalization payment due to James.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Joel A. Dalrymple, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and May and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by May, J.  (6 pages)

            Shawn Eastman-Adams appeals an order for consecutive sentences.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court properly exercised its sentencing discretion.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Marshall County, James A. McGlynn, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (6 pages)

            R.B. appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus, contending he is not likely to injure himself or others if released from civil commitment. OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the district court’s denial of R.B.’s petition for writ of habeas corpus.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mary E. Howes, Judge.  REVERSED AND REMANDED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Mullins and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (8 pages)

            Julie Loose appeals the denial of her motion to reconsider the district court’s order confirming the arbitration award.  She argues her answer to Prospect Funding Partners, LLC’s cross-claim for declaratory judgment should have operated as a timely application to vacate.  OPINION HOLDS: We reverse and remand for consideration of Loose’s motion to vacate the arbitration award on the merits.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Winneshiek County, Alan T. Heavens, Judge.  AFFIRMED ON APPEAL; AFFIRMED ON CROSS-APPEAL.  Considered by Doyle, P.J., and Mullins and Greer, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (11 pages)

            Julie Andera appeals the district court’s decision to deduct the assessed penalties and interest from the form 706 tax filings against her trust share.  Successor trustee First Citizens, and trust beneficiaries Nola and Jed Dybvik, cross-appeal the district court’s decision to award Andera $20,000 for work she performed prior to her removal as trustee.  And Nola and Jed appeal the denial of sanctions against Andera.  OPINION HOLDS: Because we find Andera breached her duty to not engage in self-dealing, she must repay the resulting costs of that breach.  We affirm the deductions against her trust share.  Finding no abuse of discretion, we affirm the trustee fee award of $20,000.  We agree with the district court that sanctions were not appropriate in this case. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Thomas A. Bitter, Judge.  SENTENCE VACATED IN PART AND REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.  Considered by Mullins, P.J., and May and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, P.J. (4 pages)

            Brett Gilden appeals the sentence imposed upon his conviction of willful injury causing serious injury.  He argues the court failed to exercise the discretion allowed to it under Iowa Code section 901.10(1) (2019) to reduce the five-year mandatory minimum mandated by Iowa Code section 902.7.  OPINION HOLDS: We find the record clear that the sentencing court was unaware of its discretion to reduce the mandatory minimum and that discretion was therefore not exercised, as required, which mandates resentencing.  We vacate the sentence imposed upon count one and remand for resentencing. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mary E. Howes, Judge.  AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.  Considered by Doyle, P.J., and Mullins and Greer, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, J.  (12 pages)

            Joel Ferris appeals and Christi Ferris cross-appeals the decree dissolving their marriage.  Joel argues that the district court erred in awarding physical care of the couple’s children to Christi and that she engaged in parental alienation.  On cross-appeal, Christi takes issue with several aspects of the district court’s property division and requests appellate attorney fees.  OPINION HOLDS: On our de novo review, we affirm the district court’s custody determination.  We modify distribution of Fidelity accounts numbered 478 and 059 and the vehicle debts.  We also modify distribution of the marital assets to provide application of the Benson formula to the pension plans, and we modify the decree by correcting the scrivener’s error used in the calculation of the value of the Barry County, Michigan property.  We decline to award appellate attorney fees.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Webster County, Kurt L. Wilke, Judge.  REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.  Considered by Doyle, P.J., and Mullins and Greer, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (17 pages)

            Mindy Ennis, formerly Mindy Wilson, appeals the order denying her request to change the custodial arrangement she and David Wolff crafted by agreement regarding their child.  Mindy argues the district court should have given her physical care of the parties’ child; she also asks for an award of appellate attorney fees.  OPINION HOLDS: After our de novo review of the record, we reverse the decision of the district court and modify the decree to award Mindy physical care of the child.  We remand to the district court for consideration of the appropriate child-support award after considering the responsibility for health insurance and any other orders consistent with our decision.  We decline to award appellate attorney fees.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Webster County, Angela L. Doyle, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (4 pages)

            Jason Bringus appeals the district court’s ruling dismissing his lawsuit against the defendants on statute-of-limitations grounds.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the dismissal of Bringus’ petition.