Is an employee covered by a collective-bargaining agreement entitled to an exception to the ‘at-will’ employment doctrine?
Iowa Supreme Court upholds a will to resolve a legal dispute over a family farm
In the words of her attorney, Margaret Workman was “obsessed” with estate planning regarding the fate of the family’s 200-acre farm, creating and amending wills no fewer than 10 times.
Margaret, who died at the age of 89 in 2012, may rest in peace: He …
read moreIowa Supreme Court restores sentence reduction in a ruling affecting 150 inmates
The Iowa Supreme Court in its first decision of the term handed down Oct. 13 agreed with a convicted sex offender that his prison sentence was wrongly extended by more than three years by the Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC).
The IDOC’s recent poli …
read moreIowa Supreme Court to hear arguments on the right to a jury and to a language interpreter in Davenport today
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear arguments in a drug-conviction appeal at the Davenport Central High School Performing Arts Center this evening. This will be the court’s third session outside the Judicial Branch Building this term, which is part of the court’s continuing effort to make the …
read moreOne down, two to go: Senate Confirms Erickson to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
The Senate on September 28, 2017, confirmed U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson to replace Kermit Bye of North Dakota, filling one of three vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit.
Omaha lawyer Steven Grasz seems likely to sail through the Senate to replace former Chief Judge William Jay Riley.
Minneso …
read moreTrump Administration has three vacancies to fill on the Eighth Circuit
This article was original published in the Summer 2017 edition of the Bar Association of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Newsletter, and is reprinted here with permission.
President Donald Trump is positioned to shape the federal circuit courts wit …
read moreIs sexual harassment grounds for removing an elected official from office?
Abraham Watkins was elected Van Buren County Attorney and took office on Jan. 1, 2015. Two years and two days later, a Van Buren County judge ruled that Watkins was guilty of maladministration of office for sexual harassment of a county employee and ordered him removed from office.
A question in traffic-camera appeals: Do you have a constitutional right to break the speed limit in Iowa?
A legal dispute over a $75 traffic citation could have implications for thousands of drivers who receive speeding tickets in the mail based on evidence captured by an automated traffic-enforcement camera.
A number of lawsuits have been working their way thr …
read moreStatistical Review of the Iowa Supreme Court’s 2016-17 Term: Hints at what to expect this term
To get an idea of what to expect in the Iowa Supreme Court’s new term that begins this week, it’s worth reviewing some statistics from the 2016-17 term. Based on past performance, the justices will be like-minded on most cases, they will cleave into two camps when they sharply disagree, and …
read moreAssessing fault: The designated driver? Or a drunken passenger who fell off the trunk of the car?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled this past Tuesday that a designated driver should not be held to a greater degree of fault for a passenger’s injuries than the passenger. (Amy Hiltner v. Owners Insuranc …
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Des Moines police officers denied immunity for holding crime witnesses, Eighth Circuit rules
Federal courts recently have begun to reexamine the common law doctrine of “qualified immunity” that protects public officials from individual liability where there is no clearly established constitutional or statutory right at stake.
This reconsideration has been prompted in large part by critics of granting qualifi …
Eighth Circuit Vacates Injunction Against Iowa’s Mask Mandate Ban On Mootness Grounds
On Monday, May 16, a panel of judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated an Iowa federal district judge’s injunction barring enforcement of Iowa’s ban of mask mandates in schools. In doing so, the Court of Appeals overturned its prior ruling from January, which affirmed the injunction …
Railroad’s share of drainage district repairs based on benefit, not cost, Iowa Supreme Court rules
A railroad whose tracks cross an agricultural drainage district should be assessed its share of the cost of repairing deteriorated drainage tile based on the railroad’s benefit from the repairs, not the added cost of complying with federal railroad regulations, the Iowa Supreme Court said in a ruling handed down May 6.
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Lay Landowner Cannot Testify About Specific Comparable Sales to Support the Valuation of His Land Without Expert Testimony, Iowa Supreme Court Rules
Iowa has long recognized what is know as “the property owner rule,” which permits a landowner to testify as a non-expert in condemnation cases about the landowner’s opinion of the value of its own property. Iowa has also long recognized that property values can be supported by the prices paid in comparable land sales. …
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On Brief: Iowa’s Appellate Blog is devoted to appellate litigation with a focus on the Iowa Supreme Court, the Iowa Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.