2025 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Justin Lightfoot and Kevin McKeever, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Buller, J.  (9 pages)

            Homeowners allege the district court erred in interpreting their breach‑of-contract claim and granting summary judgment on their consequential‑damages and bad‑faith claims against their insurer following the 2020 derecho windstorm.  OPINION HOLDS: Finding the district court did not err in its summary judgment rulings or by dismissing the case once repair payments were made in full, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Jones County, David Cox, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., and Ahlers and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  Dissent by Ahlers, J.  (10 pages)

            Doug Faust appeals the spousal-support award of a decree dissolving his fifteen-year marriage with Abbey Faust.  He argues the ten-year award to Abbey is inequitable and should be denied or reduced in duration or amount.  OPINION HOLDS: On our de novo review, mindful of the superior position of the district court to assess Abbey’s credibility about her disability and the supreme court’s admonition to refrain from undue tinkering with spousal-support awards on appeal, we agree with the district court that the award is equitable.  DISSENT ASSERTS: While I agree the majority that Abbey Faust should be awarded some spousal support, I dissent from the majority’s decision to affirm the amount of spousal support awarded by the district court.  Equity requires a substantially lower spousal-support award, so I would modify the district court’s decree accordingly.

    Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Andrea J. Dryer, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Chicchelly, P.J., Buller, J., and Bower, S.J.  Opinion by Bower, S.J.  (13 pages)

    James Ernst appeals the district court’s denial of his application for postconviction relief (PCR) following his 2016 conviction of first-degree murder.  Ernst claims his trial counsel was ineffective by failing to strike a juror for cause, failing to locate and depose State and defense witnesses, failing to object to the prosecutor’s closing statement that he asserts amounted to misconduct, failing to object to a defense witness who testified while attired in inmate clothing along with handcuffs and shackles, and for failing to request a spoliation instruction concerning a lost video.  Also, Ernst claims his PCR counsel was ineffective by failing to contact or investigate witnesses who would have testified at the PCR hearing.  OPINION HOLDS: Upon our review, we affirm. 
 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Patrick R. Grady, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Greer, P.J., and Ahlers and Badding, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  (5 pages)

            Lundell Buchanan appeals the district court’s dismissal of his application for postconviction relief.  On appeal, he argues the district court erred by excluding his telephonic testimony and by finding his trial counsel were not ineffective for failing to file a motion to suppress.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court correctly determined Buchanan failed to prove his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance.  We affirm the decision.

            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.