2025 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, David Nelmark, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Greer, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  (14 pages)

            Scott Family Properties, LLC appeals a district court judgment finding that it breached a real-estate contract and ordering specific performance.  Scott Properties argues that the buyer, Woodland Hills, LLC, repudiated the contract when it offered a new closing date and that Woodland Hills’ failure to perform on the original closing date relieved Scott Properties of any contract obligations after that date.  OPINION HOLDS: Woodland Hills did not repudiate the contract—proposing a new closing date was an option expressly contemplated by the contract.  And Woodland Hills could not perform on the original closing date because Scott Properties failed to provide the information necessary to tender payment or otherwise close.  What’s more, the mutual failure to perform on that date kept the contract alive.  So when Scott Properties later refused to perform, it breached the purchase agreement.  We thus affirm the district court and award Woodland Hills appellate attorney fees.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Madison County, Martha L. Mertz, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Ahlers, P.J., and Chicchelly and Buller, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, P.J.  (5 pages)

            Remainder beneficiaries appeal the district court and trustee’s approval of a $30,000 distribution from a trust’s principal to help fund the lifetime beneficiary’s criminal defense in an unrelated matter.  OPINION HOLDS: The trustee did not abuse his discretion when approving the distribution, and the distribution does not violate the trust’s spendthrift clause.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Thomas A. Bitter, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Badding, P.J., Langholz, J., and Bower, S.J.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  (8 pages)

            David Stuart appeals the dismissal of his petition for writ of certiorari challenging the Dubuque Building Code Advisory and Appeal Board’s denial of his appeals of three housing notices of violation.  Stuart argues that the district court erred in finding the petition untimely and that the court should have granted him an extension of time because his untimely filing was “due to a failure of the tribunal, board or officer to notify the petitioner of the challenged decision.”  Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.1402(3).  OPINION HOLDS: We agree with the district court that Stuart’s thirty-day clock started no later than the date the Board mailed its written decision—the date of his receipt is irrelevant.  So his petition filed thirty-two days later was untimely.  And because Stuart makes no argument that any action of the Board prevented him from receiving notice within the thirty-day window for filing, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying his request for an extension of time.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Jeffrey D. Bert, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Buller, J.  (4 pages)

            A criminal defendant appeals his convictions for unauthorized use of a credit card and theft in the second degree.  OPINION HOLDS: Finding his instructional‑error claim was not preserved and no legal error in the jury’s verdict, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Marshall County, Kurt J. Stoebe, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, C.J., and Ahlers and Sandy, JJ.  Opinion by Sandy, J.  (8 pages)

            Todd Woodworth appeals the district court’s ruling denying his application for postconviction relief.  On appeal, he asserts he received ineffective assistance of counsel from his attorney at his probation revocation hearing because she did not adequately advise him on the benefits of testifying at the hearing.  OPINION HOLDS: Because we find Woodworth has not established the necessary prejudice to succeed on an ineffective-assistance claim, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Winnebago County, Karen Kaufman Salic, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., and Badding and Chicchelly, JJ.  Opinion by Badding, J. (6 pages)

            Brent Shaikoski challenges his conviction for felony eluding of a law enforcement vehicle.  OPINION HOLDS: We find there is sufficient evidence to uphold Shaikoski’s conviction.  The jury was free to reject Shaikoski’s claim that his passenger took over driving in the middle of the high-speed chase. 

            Certiorari from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Stuart P. Werling, Judge.  WRIT ANNULLED.  Considered by Greer, P.J., Buller, J., and Bower, S.J.  Opinion by Greer, P.J.  (13 pages)

            Nasir Abdul-Woodud Shabazz Jr. appeals the district court’s grant of a motion to correct illegal sentence, arguing his original deferred judgment was proper because “supervision” in Illinois does not qualify as “similar relief” under Iowa law.  He also claims his counsel at the district court was ineffective.  OPINION HOLDS: Because ineffective assistance of counsel claims may only be addressed on postconviction review, we do not make any assessment on the merits of his claim.  After comparing “supervision” in Illinois to deferred judgments in Iowa, we find Illinois’s supervision is similar relief for the purposes of Iowa Code section 907.3. 

    Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Andrew Chappell, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, C.J., and Ahlers and Sandy, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, C.J.  (7 pages)

    Marsalis Jones challenges both the sufficiency and the weight of the evidence supporting his conviction for felony domestic abuse assault after a jury trial.  OPINION HOLDS: Finding no error in the district court’s denial of Jones’s motion for judgment of acquittal and no abuse of discretion in its refusal to grant a new trial, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dallas County, Michael Jacobsen, Judge.  APPEAL DISMISSED.  Considered by Greer, P.J., and Ahlers and Badding, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  Special Concurrence by Greer, P.J.  (4 pages)

            Christopher Hidlebaugh attempts to appeal his sentence following a guilty plea.  OPINION HOLDS: Hidlebaugh cannot establish good cause to appeal following his guilty plea because he attempts to challenge a sentence that he agreed to as a term of his guilty plea, so we dismiss his attempted appeal.  SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS: Given the procedural history and our caselaw, I agree that we lack jurisdiction to decide Christopher Hidlebaugh’s appeal. I write separately to highlight that while a defendant’s indigency in no way immunizes him from punishment, incarcerating a defendant based solely on his inability to follow through with a financial undertaking is unconstitutional.  I encourage district court judges to carefully scrutinize a plea agreement like the one entered into by Hidlebaugh and the State. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Jefferson County, Shawn Showers, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., and Badding and Chicchelly, JJ.  Opinion by Chicchelly, J.  (7 pages)

            Jeremy Everett Goodale, a juvenile offender, appeals his sentence after pleading guilty to first‑degree murder.  OPINION HOLDS: Because the sentencing court thoroughly considered each of the requisite factors afforded to juveniles, we affirm Goodale’s sentence.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Stewart P. Werling, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Greer, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Buller, J.  (8 pages)

            A plaintiff appeals dismissal of a medical negligence action based on decertification of her expert witness as untimely.  OPINION HOLDS: Because a trial judge may correct a prior ruling any time before final judgment, the district court was permitted to revisit its prior good‑cause determination under Iowa Code section 668.11 (2019) four years after the initial determination.  Finding the district court did not abuse its discretion in later decertifying the expert witness for an absence of good cause under section 668.11 in light of new unpublished caselaw from our court, we affirm. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Paul D. Scott, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Greer, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  (3 pages)

            Terry Lord appeals the dismissal of his application for postconviction relief as time-barred arguing that the statute of limitations is unconstitutional.  OPINION HOLDS: Assuming that Lord’s due-process challenge to the statute of limitations is preserved for appellate review, we cannot overrule our supreme court.  So we are bound by its prior rejection of a federal due-process challenge to the statute of limitations.  To the extent that Lord attempts to make any other state or federal constitutional challenges to the statute of limitations they are waived or not preserved.