Justia Iowa Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

The Supreme Court conditionally affirmed Defendant's convictions but remanded the case for an in camera inspection of the victim's mental health records, holding that the district court erred by failing to conduct the in camera inspection.Defendant was convicted of sexually abusing his granddaughter. During trial, the granddaughter lied about certain facts, and thus the granddaughter's credibility was a key issue. In her deposition, the granddaughter testified that she had disclosed the defendant's abuse to her therapist, a mandatory reporter. Noting that the therapist had not reported the alleged abuse, Defendant filed a motion for the court's in camera inspection arguing that the records likely contained exculpatory impeachment evidence. The district court denied the motion and Defendant's request for an ex parte hearing. The Supreme Court remanded the case, holding that the district court did not err in denying Defendant's motion for an ex parte hearing but erred by failing to conduct the in camera inspection of the granddaughter's mental health records. View "State v. Leedom" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the postconviction relief (PCR) court dismissing Appellant's fourth PCR application, holding that under this Court's holding today in Thongvanh v. State, __ N.W.2d __ (Iowa 2020), Defendant's claims based on State v. Plain, 898 N.W.2d 801 (Iowa 2017), failed because Plain is not retroactive.In his PCR application Appellant alleged violations of his rights to equal protection and due process and his right to an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community. Appellant based his claims on Plain. The trial court granted the State's motion to dismiss, concluding that Plain does not apply retroactively. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the trial court improperly dismissed Appellant's application based upon a ground neither party raised; and (2) because the new law of criminal procedure announced in Plain does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral review Appellant's PCR application was properly dismissed. View "Jones v. State" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the district court dismissing Appellant's application for postconviction relief (PCR) claiming a violation of his constitutional right to an impartial jury drawn from a fair cross section of the community, basing his claim on State v. Plain, 898 N.W.2d 801 (Iowa 2017), holding that the holding in Plain does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral review.In 1984, Appellant was convicted of first-degree murder. In 2017, the Supreme Court decided Plain, which addressed the Duren three-part test for evaluating Sixth Amendment fair-cross-section claims and overruled precedent adopting the absolute-disparity method as the exclusive indicator of representativeness under the second prong of Duren. In 2018, Appellant filed the instant PCR application, alleging that he was denied his rights to due process, equal protection, and a fair and impartial trial under the state and federal constitutions. Appellant based his claim on Plain. The district court granted the State's motion to dismiss, concluding that Plain is not retroactive. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) Appellant's Plain claim is time-barred by Iowa Code 822.3; and (2) because Plain's holding is not a watershed rule of criminal procedure, it does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral review. View "Thongvanh v. State" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the district court granting a Des Moines bar's motion for summary judgment and dismissing an injured party's dramshop action on the ground that the notice given to the bar or its insurance carrier did not comply with Iowa Code 123.93, holding that the notice given substantially complied with section 123.93.In its summary judgment motion, the bar contended that Plaintiff did not provide the bar with statutory notice of his intent to pursue a dramshop claim against the bar. The district court agreed and granted the motion for summary judgment. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that Plaintiff's notice substantially complied with the requirements of section 123.93. View "Hollingshead v. DC Misfits, LLC" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court vacated the decision of the court of appeals reversing Defendant's conviction on the basis that the district court inadequately instructed the jury on Defendant's justification defense, holding that the court's failure to include "lack of justification" in the marshaling instruction was not prejudicial for ineffective assistance purposes.On appeal, Defendant argued that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance for failing to object to the marshaling instruction, which did not mention that the State needed to prove the act was done without justification. The Supreme Court disagreed, holding that, in light of the evidence and the instructions as a whole, there was not a reasonable probability of a different outcome if justification had been covered in the marshaling instruction along with the other instructions. View "State v. Kuhse" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the order of the district court dismissing this action presenting the question of what must be shown to avoid the effects of a contractual forum-selection clause, holding that fraud in general is not sufficient and must relate specifically to the forum-selection clause itself.This case involved an alleged scheme to inflate the purchase price of a general aviation jet aircraft. Plaintiffs argued that Defendants fraudulently misrepresented the acquisition price of the aircraft and failed to disclose the true acquisition price. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, asserting, in part, improper venue based on the forum-selection clause in the purchase agreement. The district court dismissed the case without prejudice based on improper venue. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that because Plaintiffs did not allege fraud with respect to the forum-selection clause in the written contract, Plaintiffs' general allegations of fraud in the inducement were insufficient to avoid enforcement of the forum-selection clause of the purchase agreement. View "Karon v. Elliott Aviation" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the court of appeals affirming the judgment of the district court convicting Defendant of making a false report alleging the occurrence of the criminal act of carrying weapons, holding that the district court did not err in denying Defendant's request for an instruction on the exceptions to the underlying criminal act of carrying weapons.On appeal, the Supreme Court addressed only whether the definitional instructions to the criminal act of carrying weapons required inclusion of the statutory exceptions. Based on its review of the entire record, the Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court's refusal to give Defendant's requested instruction was not erroneous because substantial evidence did not support Defendant's requested instruction on his hypothetical affirmative defense. View "State v. Bynum" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the district court granting Plaintiff's petition for mandamus and ordering the City of Ottumwa to disclose names of all persons who had and had not been issued automated traffic enforcement (ATE) citations by the City after their vehicles were detected as speeding by an ATE camera, holding that the district court erred in ordering the production of records whose disclosure was prohibited by the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994 (DPPA), 18 U.S.C. 2721-2725, and a corresponding Iowa state law, Iowa Code 321.11.In denying the request for names, the City argued that the DPPA and section 321.11 prohibited disclosure of the requested information. The district court disagreed, concluding that the names of speed regulation violators was information on driving violations and therefore was not confidential information under the DPPA or section 321.11. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that where the personal identifying information sought by Petitioner came from a vehicle registration and driver's license database, its public disclosure was presumptively prohibited under the DPPA and section 321.11. View "Milligan v. Ottumwa Police Department" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's sentence imposed in connection with his guilty plea to second-degree murder, holding that where Defendant received an individualized sentencing hearing that addressed the Miller/Lyle/Roby factors Defendant's challenge to his sentence did not constitute a proper motion to correct an illegal sentence.Defendant was sixteen years old when he fatally shot his father. After an individualized sentencing hearing the district court imposed a fifty-year prison sentence with a twenty-year mandatory minimum before parole eligibility and recited its consideration of the sentencing factors. Defendant later filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence and for appointment of counsel, alleging that the district court failed properly to apply the factors set forth in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012), State v. Lyle, 854 N.W.2d 378 (Iowa 2014), and State v. Roby, 897 N.W.2d 127 (Iowa 2017). The district court denied the motion. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) a motion claiming the district court misapplied the Miller/Lyle/Roby factors does not constitute a challenge to an illegal sentence with a concomitant statutory right to counsel; (2) Defendant's challenge to his sentence did not constitute an attack on an illegal sentence; and (3) the district court acted within its authority in sentencing Defendant to the twenty-year mandatory minimum. View "Goodwin v. Iowa District Court for Davis County" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the court of appeals affirming the judgment of the district court convicting Defendant of driving while intoxicated, holding that Defendant was not seized for purposes of the Fourth Amendment or Iowa Const. art. I, 8 when the officer approached Defendant on foot the evening of her arrest.An officer watched a vehicle driving suspiciously for several minutes in a residential neighborhood at night. When the vehicle entered a one-lane alley and did not emerge from the alley, the officer approached the stopped vehicle without activating flashers. The officer walked up to Defendant, the driver, to engage in a conversation, which resulted in the officer learning that Defendant was under the influence of alcohol. Defendant was convicted of driving while intoxicated. Defendant appealed, arguing that she was seized in violation of her rights under the Fourth Amendment and article I, section 8. The court of appeals affirmed, concluding that Defendant was not subjected to a seizure in the constitutional sense. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that no seizure occurred under either the state or federal constitution. View "State v. Fogg" on Justia Law