Porter v. Harden

For twenty-four years, Tenants lived on property owned by Owners. Tenants kept one horse on the property. Owners later served Tenants with a thirty-day notice seeking to terminate Tenants’ tenancy. Owners followed up with a three-day notice to quit and a forcible entry and detainer action. In answer, Tenants claimed that they had a farm tenancy and that Owners had not complied with the legal requirements for terminating a farm tenancy. The district court ruled that Owners had complied with the general requirements for terminating a tenancy at will and that Tenants’ decision to graze a single horse on the property was not enough to establish a farm tenancy and trigger the special termination protections of Iowa Code 562.5 through 562.7. The court therefore found that Owners were entitled to removal of Tenants from the premises. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that land which is not devoted primarily to the production of crops or the care and feeding of livestock cannot be the foundation for a chapter 562 farm tenancy. View "Porter v. Harden" on Justia Law