2022 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mark Fowler, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Mullins, P.J., and May and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, P.J.  Special Concurrence by Ahlers, J.  Dissent by May, J.  (9 pages)

            Kenneth Hoxsey appeals his sentence of immediate incarceration.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court explained its valid reasons for imposing sentence, did not consider inappropriate matters, and did not abuse its discretion.  We affirm.  SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS: I write separately to emphasize a defendant appealing following a guilty plea should always explicitly address “good cause” in the appellant’s brief, even if failure to do so is not always fatal.  DISSENT ASSERTS: Because I am not convinced we have jurisdiction, I must respectfully dissent.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Alan Heavens, Judge.  AFFIRMED ON BOTH APPEALS.  Considered by Bower, C.J. and Vaitheswaran and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, J.  (9 pages)

            Al Urbain Construction Management Co. (AUCM) appeals and CW Wolff, LLC (CWW) cross-appeals the district court’s decision on their breach-of-contract claims.  The district court awarded damages to AUCM on one project and CWW on another project, then offset these two amounts.  OPINION HOLDS: We find the district court’s decision is supported by substantial evidence and affirm on the appeal and cross-appeal.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Heather Lauber, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., Ahlers, J., and Doyle, S.J.  Opinion by Schumacher, J.  (6 pages)

            William Stark appeals his guilty plea. He also claims his counsel was ineffective.  OPINION HOLDS: We grant discretionary review of the denial of Stark’s motion in arrest of judgment but find no abuse of discretion in the denial.  As to Stark’s ineffective-assistance claim, because Iowa Code section 814.7 (2020) prohibits direct appeals for claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, we do not consider his ineffective-assistance claim.  Consequently, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Henry W. Latham II, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Mullins, P.J., and May and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by May, J.  (9 pages)

            Donte Grubbs appeals his conviction for first-degree robbery.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm because sufficient evidence supported the jury’s verdict, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the other acts evidence.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Sarah Crane, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Greer, P.J., Badding, J., and Scott, S.J.  Opinion by Scott, S.J.  (6 pages)

            Abraham Riko appeals his conviction of third-degree burglary, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction.  OPINION HOLDS: Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, including all reasonable inferences, as we must, we find sufficient evidence to support the conviction of third-degree burglary and affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Joel A. Dalrymple, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Mullins, P.J., and Schumacher and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, J.  (13 pages)

            A landlord appeals from a district court ruling that affirmed an agency finding he discriminated against a tenant.  OPINION HOLDS:  As we find substantial evidence in the record to support the decision, we affirm. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Davis County, William Owens, Associate Juvenile Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by May, P.J., and Ahlers and Badding, JJ.  Opinion by May, P.J.  (6 pages)

            A father appeals the termination of his parental rights under Iowa Code chapter 600A (2020).  He claims (1) the juvenile court did not have subject matter jurisdiction, (2) he did not abandon his children, and (3) termination is not in the children’s best interests.  OPINION HOLDS: The juvenile court had subject matter jurisdiction.  The father abandoned the children.  And termination is in the children’s best interests.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Franklin County, James M. Drew, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Greer and Badding, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, P.J.  (13 pages)

            Charles Albright appeals the denial of his application for postconviction relief.  OPINION HOLDS: Finding no merit in any of his seven claims and no cumulative prejudice, we affirm the denial. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Christopher L. Bruns, Judge.  AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.  Considered by Mullins, P.J., and May and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, P.J.  (12 pages)

            Dale Lyga appeals the decree dissolving his marriage to Katherine Lyga.  He argues the district court erred in placing impermissible contingencies on his visitation with the parties’ children, severely and unreasonably limiting his visitation, awarding sole legal custody to Katherine, miscalculating his income for the purposes of child support, and failing to assign any Arizona debt to Katherine.  Katherine requests attorney fees on appeal.  OPINION HOLDS: On our de novo review of the record, we agree with the district court that it is in the best interests of the parties’ children to award sole legal custody to Katherine.  We also agree that the step-up visitation plan is in the best interests of the children, subject to modifications in the best interest of the children.  We agree with the district court that Dale unilaterally incurred the debt when he relocated from Arizona to Iowa for his own purposes and benefit.  Thus, the order that the debt be assigned to Dale is affirmed.  We remand to the district court the issue of appellate attorney fees, and we tax costs to Dale.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Cass County, Amy Zacharias, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Badding, JJ.  Opinion by Bower, C.J.  (2 pages)

            Elsie Seifert appeals the decree placing the parties’ child in Brandon VanBuskirk’s physical care.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Story County, Amy M. Moore, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and May, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (6 pages)

            Landowners appeal the dismissal of their petition for declaratory judgment against the district’s trustees and others challenging levies imposed after a failed annexation.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court did not err in dismissing the landowners’ petition.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, Michael Jacobsen, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Greer, P.J., Badding, J., and Carr, S.J.  Opinion by Carr, S.J.  (16 pages)

            West Des Moines Hotel Associates, LLC (“Associates”) challenges the Dallas County Board of Review’s approval of the 2019 assessment of the West Des Moines Marriott (“Hotel”).  The district court affirmed.  On appeal, Associates contends the court erred in determining the Board met its burden to prove the property was not over assessed.  OPINION HOLDS: Having considered the record evidence, testimony of the witnesses, and the respective drawbacks of each appraisal, we conclude the Board has met its burden to prove its valuation of the Hotel as of January 1, 2019, for $18,434,100 is not excessive.  We therefore affirm.