October 2024 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Sarah Crane, Judge.  AFFIRMED ON APPEAL AND CROSS-APPEAL AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.  Heard by Schumacher, P.J., Langholz, J., and Doyle, S.J.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  (24 pages)

            Bradshaw Renovations, LLC, a construction contractor hired by Barry and Jacklynn Graham to renovate their home, appeals an adverse jury verdict on the Grahams’ consumer-fraud claims and the district court’s judgment on its unjust-enrichment and quantum-meruit claims.  The Grahams cross-appeal the amount of their attorney-fee award.  OPINION HOLDS: Given the considerable deference owed to the jury, we hold that substantial evidence supports the consumer-fraud verdict.  We also agree that the district court correctly dismissed Bradshaw Renovations’ unjust-enrichment and quantum-meruit claims because they sought damages for matters covered by the parties’ written contract.  And we affirm on the Grahams’ cross-appeal because they failed to raise their claimed error in the district court and thus failed to preserve it for our review.  We agree that the Grahams are entitled to appellate attorney fees for the defense of the consumer-fraud verdict and remand to the district court to determine the reasonable amount.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Monica Ackley, Judge.  REVERSED AND REMANDED.  Heard by Schumacher, P.J., and Badding and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, P.J.  (13 pages)

            Goosmann Law Firm, P.L.C. appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Hirschbach Motor Lines, Inc. and GR Equipment Leasing, Inc. on an attorney fee dispute.  OPINION HOLDS: We determine there are genuine issues of material fact about the meaning of the contingency fee provision in the parties’ attorney fee contract.  We reverse the district court court’s decision and remand for further proceedings.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Monica Zrinyi Ackley, Judge.  AFFIRMED ON BOTH APPEALS AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS ON THE APPEAL OF THE DISSOLUTION DECREE.  Heard by Schumacher, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  (13 pages)

            Rosanne Samuels appeals the district court’s denial of her petition to vacate a decree dissolving her marriage with one man and its issuance of a decree dissolving another marriage with Mustapha El Khayat rather than granting an annulment.  OPINION HOLDS: Samuels correctly argues that a petition to vacate a decree as void for improper service need not be made within one year.  But even so, she is judicially estopped from making such a challenge to her first dissolution decree because it was issued at her request and based on her position in that proceeding that she made proper service.  The district court thus correctly denied her petition to vacate that first decree and her request for an annulment rather than a dissolution of the second marriage.  We award appellate attorney fees to El Khayat, deny Samuels’s request for fees, and remand with directions for the district court to decide the reasonable amount of fees.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Marshall County, John J. Haney, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., Langholz, J., and Bower, S.J.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  (7 pages)

            Joseph and Bambi Schmidt appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment on their breach-of-contract claim challenging an insurance appraisal award that decided the amount of loss to their property from the 2020 derecho.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court correctly granted summary judgment.  The Schmidts do not argue that the appraisal process was infected with fraud, mistake, or misfeasance—the only grounds on which we could ignore the otherwise binding determination of the Schmidts’ loss under their insurance policy.  And the arguments that they do make merely seek to improperly revisit that award.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Henry W. Latham II, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Ahlers, P.J., Badding, J., and Gamble, S.J.  Opinion by Gamble, S.J.  (11 pages)

            A postconviction-relief applicant appeals the dismissal of his claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel.  OPINION HOLDS: Because the applicant did not establish prejudice, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Benton County, Chad Kepros, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Greer, P.J., and Ahlers and Badding, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, P.J.  Special Concurrence by Ahlers, J.  (12 pages)

            Tacoa Talley was tried by jury and convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Jodie Bevans.  Talley appeals three decisions made by the district court: the admission of “enhanced” audio from a Snapchat video, the transcript of the social media video, and the submission of disputed language in a jury instruction.  OPINION HOLDS: We find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the challenged evidence and did not err in submitting the pertinent jury instruction.  As a result, this court affirms Talley’s conviction.  SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS: While I agree with the majority that the challenged jury instruction is a correct statement of the law, I write separately to suggest some improvement could be made to the stock instruction to provide more clarity.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Webster County, Angela L. Doyle and Christopher C. Polking, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Tabor, C.J., and Chicchelly and Sandy, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, C.J. (22 pages)           

            Jordan Webb appeals his convictions for second-degree sexual abuse, incest, and child endangerment.  He contends there is insufficient evidence to support the verdicts and the district court erred in admitting hearsay statements made by the child victim, denying his motion for mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct, and denying his motion for new trial based on his challenge to the weight of the evidence.  OPINION HOLDS: We find substantial evidence supports the verdicts.  The district court committed harmless error when it admitted the child’s hearsay statements, and it did not abuse its discretion in admitting the statements over Webb’s rule 5.403 objection or denying Webb’s motion for new trial.  Webb failed to preserve error on his prosecutorial misconduct claim.  We affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Mark T. Hostager, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Chicchelly, P.J., Buller, J., and Doyle, S.J.  Opinion by Doyle, S.J.  (11 pages)

            Dale Lyons Jr. appeals his conviction of indecent exposure claiming there was insufficient evidence to convict him, he was not competent to stand trial, and his right to a speedy trial was violated.  OPINION HOLDS: We find there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict.  Lyons failed to meet his burden to prove incompetency.  Lyons failed to preserve error on the speedy trial issue.  We affirm his conviction and sentence.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Des Moines County, John M. Wright, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Badding, P.J., and Langholz and Sandy, JJ.  Opinion by Sandy, J.  (15 pages)

            Leanne Rana appeals the judgment of the district court finding that she breached an express oral contract with Stanley Higdon.  On appeal, she argues (1) the district court erred by not finding Higdon to be an incompetent witness and (2) the evidence was insufficient to establish that she ever manifested assent to a contract.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm, finding (1) Rana’s competency argument was not preserved for appeal and (2) the record discloses substantial evidence of mutual assent to a contract.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Fae E. Hoover-Grinde, Judge.  APPEAL DISMISSED.  Considered by Badding, P.J., and Langholz, J., and Gamble, S.J.* Opinion by Badding, P.J.  (7 pages)

            Property Holders, Ltd. appeals a district court order annulling its writ of certiorari that challenged a nuisance property designation.  OPINION HOLDS: While this appeal was pending, Property Holders sold the property at issue, making this appeal moot.  We decline to apply the public-importance exception to the mootness doctrine and dismiss the appeal. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Scott J. Beattie, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., Sandy, J., and Bower, S.J.  Opinion by Bower, S.J.  (9 pages)

            Richard Mutchler appeals the district court’s denial of his application for postconviction relief following his 2010 convictions for two counts of first-degree murder.  Mutchler claims his trial counsel was ineffective.  OPINION HOLDS: Because Mutchler did not establish prejudice, his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims fail.  Accordingly, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Crawford County, Patrick H. Tott, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Greer, P.J., Badding, J., and Doyle, S.J.  Opinion by Doyle, S.J.  (5 pages)

            Following a bench trial, Montoya appealed claiming that the district court lacked authority to try his criminal case without a jury, absent a valid Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.17(1) waiver.  OPINION HOLDS: Having failed to preserve error on the issue, we affirm Montoya’s convictions and sentence.