UPDATES & ANALYSIS

Iowa Supreme Court sticks with its precedent on livestock nuisance suits

by Rox Laird | June 29, 2018

The Iowa Supreme Court sent a lawsuit back to Wapello District Court to make factual findings on whether an Iowa law that protects livestock-confinement operators from nuisance liability violates the affected neighbors’ constitutional rights.

The Court in Honomichl v. Valley View Swine handed down June 22 held that its 2004 decision in Gacke v. Pork Xtra remains the correct standard for trial courts to apply in assessing whether a State statute granting immunity to the livestock industry violates the Iowa Constitution as applied to a particular neighboring plaintiff.

[For more background on Honomichl v. Valley View Swine, see our earlier post previewing the oral argument.]

Both parties in the Honomichl appeal urged the Court to abandon the Gacke precedent. The plaintiffs who live near hog confinement buildings urged the Court to declare Iowa’s law granting immunity to livestock confinements unconstitutional on its face, not just as applied to specific neighboring plaintiffs. The defendant hog producers asked the Court to declare that Gacke has been rendered outdated by recent changes in livestock regulations.

The Court declined to do either in a decision written by Justice Bruce Zager and fully joined by Chief Justice Mark Cady and Justices Brent Appel, David Wiggins and Daryl Hecht. Justice Thomas Waterman filed a separate opinion joined by Justice Edward Mansfield concurring with the majority holding while saying Gacke was wrongly decided in the first place and is outdated.

“Despite these significant statutory and regulatory changes, the analytical framework set forth by the Gacke factors, even with its limitations, are still compatible with present conditions,” Zager wrote for the Court.

Recent changes in state regulation of livestock confinements “would appear to benefit the adjacent landowners, at least in theory,” Zager added, but the “fighting issue remains” whether the immunity statute as applied to the Honomichl plaintiffs is constitutional. “Neither party has suggested an alternative legal framework to utilize in such cases, and the Court is unable to discern a satisfactory alternative standard to apply.”

Tags: Iowa Supreme Court, Iowa Supreme Court 2017-18