Justia Iowa Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

After the State withdrew its first plea offer and proposed a second, less favorable plea offer, Defendant accepted the second plea offer and pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse not resulting in injury. The district court imposed an indeterminate term of imprisonment not to exceed fourteen years. Defendant filed this petition for postconviction relief asserting several claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Specifically, Defendant claimed that he received ineffective assistance as a result of counsel’s failure to accurately inform him of the terms and potential sentencing outcomes of the State’s first plea offer. The district court denied the petition on all grounds. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) counsel may have failed to perform an essential duty when he did not accurately inform Defendant of the exact terms and sentencing outcomes of the first plea offer, but (2) because Defendant did not show he would have accepted the first plea offer had counsel accurately informed him of its exact terms and potential sentencing outcomes, Defendant failed to establish the necessary prejudice to succeed on his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. View "Dempsey v. State" on Justia Law

Jim Book, the owner of an auto repair shop in Iowa, bought from an Iowa retailer four Treadstone tires manufactured in China by Doublestar Dongfeng Tyre Company, Ltd. Jim’s son, Dylan Book, was airing up one of the tires when it exploded, causing severe and permanent injuries. Dylan, through his mother, filed a products-liability action in Iowa seeking recovery from Doublestar and Voma Tire Corporation, a national tire distributor that sold several of Doublestar’s tires. Doublestar moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. The district court granted the motion. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Federal Constitution permits the exercise of personal jurisdiction over a high-volume, foreign manufacturer, such as Doublestar, whose allegedly dangerous product purchased in Iowa injured a resident here. View "Book v. Voma Tire Corp." on Justia Law

Plaintiffs initiated suit in federal district court against Defendant, their former employer, alleging employment discrimination. Plaintiff’s complaint included claims that Defendant had violated Iowa Code 216.6A, Iowa’s equal pay law. Defendants moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that Plaintiffs’ claims under section 216.6A should be dismissed to the extent that they arose before the effective date of that provision. After hearing oral arguments, the district court certified two questions to the Supreme Court to clarify Iowa law with respect to wage discrimination claims. The Supreme Court answered (1) section 216.6A applies on a prospective basis only to conduct occurring after its effective date; and (2) plaintiffs may recover damages for wage discrimination under the preexisting law, Iowa Code 216.6, and recoverable damages for loss of income are based on discriminatory wage payments that occurred within 300 days before the plaintiff filed a complaint with the civil rights commission. View "Dindinger v. AllSteel, Inc." on Justia Law

Following a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of six drug-related crimes. After Defendant was sentenced, the court of appeals reversed one of Defendant’s convictions, and Defendant received a resentencing hearing on the five convictions that were not reversed. The new sentence was the same as the original sentence with the only difference being that the new sentence did not include one of the five-year sentences as a result of the reversal of the single conviction. The Supreme Court affirmed the sentence of the district court, holding (1) the sentencing court did not abuse its discretion in imposing the sentence; and (2) the record was not adequate to address Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim. View "State v. Hopkins" on Justia Law

The Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) and Ghost Player, LLC executed a contract for tax credits under which Ghost Player believed it would receive certain tax credits for a documentary film it produced. CH Investors, LLC was a third-party beneficiary to the contract. The IDED declined to issue the contracted tax credit for some of the investments and expenditures of Ghost Player. Ghost Player and CH Investors subsequently filed a breach of contract action against the IDED. The district court dismissed the action on the grounds that Ghost Player failed to exhaust its remedies under the Iowa Administrative Procedure Act. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court (1) was without authority to hear the case because the IDED actions in this case required Ghost Player to exhaust its administrative remedies prior to filing a case in district court; and (2) correctly found the process used by the IDED in processing the claim did not offend due process principles under the State or the Federal Constitutions. View "Ghost Player, LLC v. State" on Justia Law

Wellmark, Inc., an Iowa-based health insurer that belongs to the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) network, contracted with health care providers in Iowa to provide services at certain reimbursement rates. Wellmark agreed to make those rates available both to self-insured Iowa plans that it administers and to out-of-state BCBS affiliates when those entities provide coverage for services provided in Iowa. Plaintiffs, a number of Iowa chiropractors, sued Wellmark, claiming that Wellmark had abused monopoly power in violation of the Iowa Competition Law. The Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of some of the chiropractors’ antitrust claims and remanded on Plaintiffs’ remaining claims. On remand, Plaintiffs stipulated that their remaining antitrust claims regarding the agreements between Wellmark and both the self-insuring employers and the out-of-state BCBS affiliates were being asserted on a per se theory. The district court rejected Plaintiffs’ per se theories and entered summary judgment for Wellmark. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Wellmark’s arrangements with the self-insured employers and out-of-state BCBS licensees did not amount to per se violations of Iowa antitrust law. View "Mueller v. Wellmark, Inc." on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse in the second degree and one count of lascivious acts with a child. Defendant appealed, arguing, among other things, that trial counsel was ineffective in failing to object to a lascivious-acts jury instruction that he claimed was not supported by sufficient evidence. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court addressed only Defendant’s claim regarding counsel’s response to the lascivious-acts instruction and let the court of appeals’ affirmance on the remaining issues stand as the final decision of the Court. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that Defendant failed to establish that he suffered prejudice as a result of counsel’s failure to object to the lascivious-acts instruction, and therefore, his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim must fail. View "State v. Thorndike" on Justia Law

Magistrate Douglas A. Krull, in his private practice, represented a mother in a pending action against her ex-husband to modify child custody provisions of their dissolution decree. A police officer sought a search warrant in a burglary investigation targeting the parties’ son, and Krull signed the warrant to search the home of his client. The Iowa Commission on Judicial Qualifications recommended that the Supreme Court publicly reprimand Krull based on its finding that Krull violated three disciplinary rules governing part-time judicial magistrates by signing the search warrant. The Supreme Court imposed the recommended sanction of a public reprimand, holding (1) by signing the warrant, Krull violated the Iowa Code of Judicial Conduct; and (2) because Krull was previously admonished for signing a warrant to search the home of a party in a civil case he was handling in his private practice, a public reprimand was the appropriate sanction here. View "In re Krull" on Justia Law

In 2011, the City of Sioux City enacted an automatic traffic enforcement (ATE) ordinance. In 2012, a vehicle registered to Appellant was detected by ATE equipment traveling at an excessive speed. As a result, the City issued a citation to Appellant. Appellant moved to dismiss the citation on constitutional grounds, claiming enforcement of the ordinance violated the due process clauses of the Iowa and U.S. Constitutions, the inalienable rights clause of the Iowa Constitution, and the Iowa municipal home rule amendment. The magistrate entered an order finding Defendant liable for the violation. The district court affirmed. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the ATE ordinance is not unconstitutional. View "City of Sioux City v. Jacobsma" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed an amended petition against two attorneys who prepared documents in connection with the sale of real and personal property, alleging that Defendants negligently performed legal services in negotiating, drafting, and providing legal advice in connection with the documents. The district court granted Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on statute of limitations grounds. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that summary judgment should not have been granted in favor of either attorney because (1) with regard to the first attorney, the district court identified the incorrect date at which Plaintiffs suffered actual damage; and (2) with regard to the second attorney, a fact question remained for trial. View "Vossoughi v. Polaschek" on Justia Law