Iowa law requires that criminal defendants who invoke a “stand your ground” defense must have informed law-enforcement authorities of the use of deadly force. That requirement, on its face, may or may not violate a defendant’s constitutional rights, but a defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination …
Two Wapello County residents who brought nuisance suits against operators of hog confinements and later voluntarily dropped them must pay the defendants’ costs, including legal fees, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled March 27.
Michael Merrill and Karen Jo Frescoln were among two of 70 original plaintiffs in Honom …
Homeowners may have to pay a contractor for labor and materials in a mechanic’s lien foreclosure, but they cannot be forced to forfeit their homestead to cover the contractor’s legal fees, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled. That is, however, unless the homesteader waits too long to make that claim.
That was the good-news, …
What is a non-profit institution to do when a gift becomes a burden?
That is more or less the predicament Coe College found itself in when it learned that a collection of Grant Wood paintings given to the Cedar Rapids school decades earlier, and which had grown significantly in value, could not be sold without violating …
Jurors in a Pottawattamie County medical malpractice trial submitted a question to the court during jury deliberations about the meaning of instructions given to them by the trial judge for apportioning fault to a settled party, but the judge did not commit a prejudicial error by failing to cla …
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Iowa Supreme Court issued an order temporarily extending the two-year statute of limitations in civil cases by 76 days.
Scott County officials violated the Iowa Open Records Act when they made an appointment to fill a mid-term vacancy on the Board of Supervisors without publicly revealing the identities of any of the applicants, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a 4-3 decision handed down Feb. 14.
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in nine cases Feb. 17, 18, and 19. Four other cases will be submitted to the Court without oral argument. Following are brief summaries of the February cases, not including an attorney disciplinary case.
Bert and Donna Millers’ desire to conceive children in the 1950s was realized with the assistance of Dr. John Randall, a physician and head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Iowa Hospitals, and Donna gave birth to two children via artificial insemination.
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.
