Duncalf v. Ritscher Farms, Inc.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Iowa held that Iowa Code chapter 359A requires adjoining landowners to share responsibility for maintaining partition fences, regardless of whether each landowner keeps livestock. The court concluded that chapter 169C, which addresses liability for trespassing livestock, did not relieve Ritscher Farms of its fencing obligations. The judgment was reversed and remanded for the fence viewers to reapportion the parties' fencing responsibilities.

Holdings

1. The plaintiffs did not preserve their implied-contract argument because neither the fence viewers nor the district court made a finding on that issue, and the plaintiffs did not file a motion under Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 179(b) to expand the district court's findings.
2. Iowa Code chapter 169C, which addresses liability for damage caused by trespassing livestock, does not relieve an adjoining landowner of independent obligations to maintain partition fences under Iowa Code chapter 359A.
3. Under Iowa Code section 359A.1, adjoining landowners share the duty to maintain partition fences after a written demand, regardless of whether each landowner keeps livestock.
4. Fence viewers must apportion the shared costs and maintenance obligations under chapter 359A, with authority to adjust the allocation to equalize the burden in light of circumstances such as the difficulty and expense of maintaining a fence across a frequently flooded creek.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the plaintiffs preserved a claim that an implied contract required Ritscher Farms to perform the predecessor's fence-maintenance obligations.
2. Whether Iowa Code chapter 169C relieved Ritscher Farms of its obligation under Iowa Code chapter 359A to share responsibility for maintaining partition fences because Ritscher Farms did not keep livestock.
3. Whether the fence viewers were required to apportion partition-fence maintenance obligations among adjoining landowners under chapter 359A.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded