Robert G. Allbee

The case involved Cheryl Grout's postconviction challenge to her guilty plea to first-degree robbery, arguing that the plea was involuntary because she was not informed before pleading about a statutory requirement under section 906.5 that she serve at least half her sentence without parole eligibility due to a prior forcible felony conviction. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the denial of relief, holding that state precedent in Boge v. State did not require disclosure of the parole limitation during plea proceedings and that the federal due process clause likewise imposed no such obligation. The court reasoned that federal Rule 11, as amended, requires only advice on mandatory minimum and maximum penalties, not details on parole eligibility or release dates. Issues regarding affirmative misleading by the court or counsel were not considered because they were raised for the first time on appeal.

criminal lawprocedure

The case Weitl v. Moes arose from medical negligence at a hospital that caused permanent brain damage and blindness to Linda Weitl and resulted in the stillbirth of her near-term fetus. Plaintiffs included claims by Linda's minor children for loss of parental society and companionship, and by the fetus's estate for wrongful death. The Iowa Supreme Court reinstated the children's independent cause of action for loss of parental consortium, finding it cognizable under Iowa law, while affirming dismissal of the wrongful death claim because a stillborn fetus is not recognized as a person entitled to such recovery.

torts & liabilityfamily law

This case involves a custody dispute between unwed parents over their child born in 1977. Following a paternity action initiated by the mother that resulted in a default judgment awarding her custody, the father petitioned to modify the judgment on grounds that custody had not been properly noticed or litigated, violating due process. The trial court awarded custody to the father after consolidating the matter with a related dissolution action, and the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the paternity judgment's custody provision was irregular and that the evidence on the child's best interests supported placement with the father based on factors including stability, parental involvement, and living arrangements.

family lawprocedure

The case involved Dale Eugene Cosgrove's petition for postconviction relief after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery, claiming his court-appointed attorney provided ineffective assistance due to a conflict of interest from also briefly representing Curtis Steele, a witness whose statements implicated Cosgrove in the crime. The postconviction court denied relief, finding no dual representation occurred and no substantial possibility of conflict. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed, holding that dual representation requires jointly charged codefendants and that Cosgrove and Steele were not such codefendants, while any potential conflict did not violate Cosgrove's constitutional right to counsel under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments or the Iowa Constitution. The court reasoned that the attorney-client relationships were sequential and limited, with no evidence that the representation of Steele adversely affected Cosgrove's interests or plea decision.

criminal lawprocedure

This case involved a grievance proceeding initiated by the Iowa State Bar Association's Committee on Professional Ethics and Conduct against attorney Allan J. Bergren, based on his involuntary commitment for alcoholism and subsequent failure to adhere to a court-approved treatment program. The court found that Bergren had resumed consuming alcohol, was frequently intoxicated, pleaded guilty to public intoxication, and neglected his law practice to the detriment of clients. Applying precedents on attorney discipline, the court determined by a convincing preponderance of the evidence that Bergren was an alcoholic whose condition impaired his ability to practice. It therefore suspended his license to practice law in Iowa indefinitely, with reinstatement not permitted sooner than one year from the decision date, subject to conditions including compliance with notification rules and proof of future control over the alcoholism.

criminal lawprocedurebusiness & regulatory

The case involved defendant Morton S. Fingert's jury conviction for evading state income taxes in 1973 and 1974 under Iowa Code section 422.25(8), where the State used a T-account method to reconstruct income and demonstrate that commodity trading losses exceeded reported earnings. On appeal, Fingert challenged the admission of commodity brokerage account records and related testimony as inadmissible hearsay, violations of the best evidence rule, insufficient foundation under the regularly kept records exception of section 622.28, and other claims including prosecutorial misconduct warranting a mistrial. The court analyzed whether the records qualified as adoptive admissions or business records, rejected the adoptive admission theory due to lack of affirmative adoption by the defendant, and examined the statutory foundational requirements and provisions for reproduced documents while addressing error preservation.

criminal lawtaxesprocedure

This case involved Citizens First National Bank suing Millard Hoyt on an overdue $25,000 promissory note secured by a security interest in cattle, while defendant Paul Koffman cross-petitioned for unpaid fees under a cattle maintenance agreement and sought to enforce an agistor's lien through sale of the cattle. Hoyt raised multiple counterclaims, defenses including breach of fiduciary duty, estoppel, laches, waiver, violations of the Iowa Consumer Credit Code, and challenges to the lien and sale. The trial court ruled for the bank and Koffman after resubmission on the record, and the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed, finding the trial court's factual determinations supported by substantial evidence and no reversible error in Hoyt's assignments, including waiver of any judicial disqualification issues due to the parties' prior knowledge and failure to object.

business & regulatorypropertyprocedure

In this interlocutory appeal, plaintiffs Elrita and Harold Fuller challenged the trial court's allowance of a contributory negligence defense in a personal injury suit arising from a 1977 car-pedestrian collision on a public street. Elrita sought damages for her injuries, while Harold asserted a separate claim for loss of consortium. The Iowa Supreme Court declined to abrogate contributory negligence in favor of comparative negligence, holding that such a policy change is better addressed by the legislature, but ruled that the injured spouse's contributory negligence does not bar the other spouse's independent loss of consortium claim. The court therefore affirmed the defense as to Elrita's claim but reversed and struck it as to Harold's claim.

torts & liability

The case concerned whether Iowa Code § 707.5(1), defining a class D felony of involuntary manslaughter as unintentionally causing death by committing a public offense other than a forcible felony or escape, could be applied to a death resulting from the mere violation of a traffic signal. The trial court dismissed the indictment against defendant Conner, who had been charged after running a red light and causing a fatality, holding that the statute did not reach simple disobedience of a signal light. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed on statutory construction grounds, examining the homicide provisions as a whole and finding a legislative scheme of graduated culpability that required recklessness or criminal negligence rather than a bare public offense violation to support conviction under subsection 707.5(1).

criminal law

In State v. Johnson, the defendant was charged with sexual abuse in the third degree after an alleged incident involving force, but a jury convicted him of the lesser offense of assault while participating in a felony under Iowa law. The Iowa Supreme Court addressed whether assault while participating in a felony qualifies as a lesser included offense of sexual abuse in the third degree, applying a two-part test that examines both the legal elements of the crimes and the factual record. The court concluded that the elements of the lesser offense are necessarily included in the greater offense because sexual abuse in the third degree cannot occur without an assault as defined by statute, and a factual basis existed for submitting the lesser charge to the jury. As a result, the trial court did not err in instructing on the lesser included offense, and the conviction was upheld.

criminal law

In State v. Fluhr, the defendant appealed his conviction for theft in the third degree, an aggravated misdemeanor, after pleading guilty following an amended information that reduced the original felony charge. The Iowa Supreme Court examined whether the trial court's acceptance of the plea satisfied Iowa R.Crim.P. 8(2)(b), which requires the judge to personally address the defendant to confirm the plea is voluntary, intelligent, and supported by a factual basis. The proceedings consisted of a short colloquy in which the judge referenced a completed written plea form, confirmed the defendant's age and education, asked a few questions about understanding and voluntariness, and established a basic factual basis for the offense. The court held that substantial compliance with the rule is the standard of review, that the extent of required personal inquiry varies by case, and that written plea forms may supplement but cannot fully substitute for the judge's on-the-record dialogue with the defendant.

criminal lawprocedure

This case was a will contest brought by the testator's natural children after his death, challenging the distribution of his estate under a will executed before his divorce from his wife. The will left all property to the wife if she survived him, or alternatively to the wife's son (the testator's stepson) if she predeceased him, or to a charity if neither survived; a statute automatically revoked the provisions favoring the former spouse upon divorce, but the wife survived the testator. The trial court ruled that the gift over to the stepson failed because the condition of the wife's predeceasing the testator had not occurred, so the estate passed by intestacy to the children. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals' reversal, holding that the stepson was entitled to take, based on the testator's clear intent as shown by the entire will and its distribution scheme to disinherit the natural children and provide for the wife or stepson instead. The court emphasized examining the whole will and surrounding circumstances rather than applying a blanket rule of construction to the statutory revocation.

family lawproperty

This case concerned whether the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) had jurisdiction over claims that Jackson County Public Hospital committed prohibited labor practices by terminating two food service workers allegedly due to union organizing efforts. The workers were employed by a private contractor, A.R.A. Services, Inc., under contract with the public hospital, and the NLRB had previously declined jurisdiction over them. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the district court's ruling that PERB lacked authority because the food service workers were not public employees under the Public Employment Relations Act, holding that PERB exceeded its statutory authority by asserting jurisdiction. The court did not address the underlying merits of the prohibited practice allegations.

labor & employmentfederal power

The case involved Bruce Gardner's appeal from his guilty plea to third-degree theft in Iowa, claiming the trial court failed to ensure he understood the plea bargain terms. The Iowa Supreme Court first addressed whether the appeal was barred for not filing a motion in arrest of judgment, concluding that the prior requirement from State v. Reaves did not apply under the new criminal code's rules. On the merits, the court affirmed the conviction, finding that the defendant had been sufficiently informed of the plea agreement through his attorney, the prosecutor's recitation, and the judge's inquiries, and that he affirmed his understanding. The court held that the trial judge was not obligated to require the defendant to state the terms in his own words.

criminal lawprocedure

In State v. Ege, the defendant appealed his conviction for rape under Iowa Code § 698.1, arguing that the trial court erred in admitting a BB pistol and clothing seized without a warrant. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, holding that the items were properly admitted because the defendant voluntarily consented to their seizure after receiving Miranda warnings. The court reasoned that, under the totality of the circumstances, the officers did not coerce the defendant and that any impairment from intoxication did not render the consent invalid. The court also rejected other claims regarding witness cross-examination and prosecutorial conduct due to lack of preserved error or abuse of discretion.

criminal lawprocedure

The case concerned a challenge by two Des Moines residents and honorably discharged veterans to Iowa Code § 37.10, which required that commissioners managing veterans memorial buildings be selected by eight specified private veterans organizations and that all commissioners themselves be veterans. The plaintiffs alleged violations of equal protection, free speech and association rights, and the nondelegation doctrine under the Iowa Constitution. The Iowa Supreme Court held that the statute's delegation of the power to select commissioners to private organizations violated article III, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution, which vests legislative authority exclusively in the General Assembly, and that this state-law ground was dispositive. The court therefore affirmed the trial court's judgment invalidating the selection process without reaching the federal constitutional claims or the separate requirement that commissioners be veterans.

civil rightsprocedure

This case is an appeal by the husband in a dissolution of a 20-year marriage challenging the trial court's orders on child support, alimony, property division regarding the family home, and an enforcement mechanism requiring him to place a quitclaim deed in escrow. The Iowa Supreme Court conducted a de novo review guided by statutory factors for support and alimony, examined the parties' incomes, assets, debts, and expenses, and affirmed the decree in most respects while modifying it to remove the utility payment obligation, tie the home sale and equal division of proceeds to the youngest child's majority or high school graduation, increase alimony at that point, and eliminate the escrow deed provision. The court reasoned that the support allocations were generally justified given the need to maintain two households but that the utility requirement was excessive, the home should provide stability for the children during minority before sale, and the escrow mechanism was punitive, lacked notice or hearing protections, and was less flexible than contempt proceedings. On remand the trial court was directed to enter a revised decree.

family lawproperty

This case involved a dispute between First Federal State Bank, as assignee of a defaulted contractor's rights under a public swimming pool construction contract with the Town of Malvern, and the contractor's surety over the remaining contract funds after the surety completed the project. The Iowa Supreme Court held that the surety was entitled to the entire disputed fund of $10,500 based on its subrogation to the town's rights to withhold payments due to the contractor's default and excess completion costs. The court reasoned that chapter 573 of the Iowa Code, which governs labor and material claims on public improvements, did not apply to this dispute between the town and contractor over earned progress payments, allowing the surety to prevail as the town's subrogee.

business & regulatoryproperty