Opinion
No. 5-893 / 05-0496
Filed February 1, 2006
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Carla Schemmel, Judge.
Plaintiff appeals the district court's ruling in a quiet title action. APPEAL DISMISSED.
Kevin J. Caster of Shuttleworth Ingersoll, P.L.C., Cedar Rapids, for appellant.
John Werden of Van Dyke Werden, Carroll, for appellees.
Considered by Huitink, P.J., and Mahan and Hecht, JJ.
I. Background Facts and Proceedings
In 1978 certain restrictions and covenants were placed on Universal Acres, a plat of land located north of University Avenue and West of 126th Street in what is now Clive, Iowa. Universal Acres was subsequently subdivided into smaller lots and has been developed into residential and commercial use. A commercial development known as the Country Club Plaza Shopping Center (CCPSC) is located at the south end of the property. The CCPSC has been platted twice, once each by two successive developers (CCPSC Plat 1 and CCPSC Plat 2). Ryan Companies US, Inc. currently owns the CCPSC. The 1978 Easement runs through the center of the CCPSC property from south to north.
The previous owners of the CCPSC built a closed storm sewer system on the CCPSC property. The main storm sewer pipe was installed along the east boundary line. Strictures were built to tie into future sewers that would connect in from the commercial property, and to catch overland flowage water. The CCPSC developers also constructed a siltation and storm water retention basin. In 1999 and 2003, the owners of the CCPSC property granted certain private and public storm sewer easements and a private detention and overland flowage easement.
Ryan Companies filed a petition to quiet title in October 2003, requesting that the district court:
1. Enter orders and decree as a matter of law that the 1978 drainage easement and related covenants have been extinguished and terminated without necessity of any action by Ryan Companies and are not now of any further force or effect as an encumbrance on Ryan Real Property (CCPSC plats 1 and 2) or otherwise that the Ryan Real Property is now free of the drainage easement and free of the related covenants.
2. Quiet title and establish Ryan's fee simple title to the Ryan Real Property against Defendants and their successors in interest in ownership of Lots 9, 11, 13 and 14 of Universal Acres.
3. Enter orders and decree that the 1978 drainage easement and related covenants are no longer a burden, charge, encumbrance or cloud on Ryan Companies' title and possession of Ryan Real Property and do not affect or inhibit any use or development of the property by Ryan Companies.
The petition named the following defendants:
Mark and Barbara Domek, Brian and Cheryl Mahoney, Jason Winkelmann, Bryan and Andrea McGinness, William and Joeilynn Leonhardt, Steven and Julie Pautvein, Ronald and Donna Shaw, Kendall and Lorraine Ingwersen, James and Rose Francis, Tony and Sheila Thelan, Douglas and Catherine Weiss, Jeffery and Kay Huber, Dwight Kelly, Gary and Glenice Peck, Lambert Blank, Jr., Heather Stilborn, Diamond Brook Inc., David and Elizabeth Mulcahy, Rueter Corp., Linda Grandquist, State of Iowa and City of Clive, Iowa, and all unknown claimants of Lots 1, 2, 3, and 5, Country Club Plaza Shopping Center Plat 1, in Clive.
The following defendants filed an answer to the petition:
Brian and Cheryl Mahoney, William and Joeilynn Leonhardt, Steven and Julie Pautvein, Ronald and Donna Shaw, Kendall and Lorraine Ingwersen, Tony and Sheila Thelan, Douglas and Catherine Weiss, Dwight Kelly, Gary and Glenice Peck, Lambert Blank, Jr., and Heather Stilborn.
The following parties filed some sort of pleading acknowledging the petition without disputing the request for relief: State of Iowa and City of Clive, Iowa, and all unknown claimants of Lots 1, 2, 3, and 5, Country Club Plaza Shopping Center Plat 1, in Clive. Ryan Companies dismissed Reuter Corp. after it filed a disclaimer of interest in the 1978 drainage easement.
Jay Sohn and Julie McClatchey purchased and moved into the home formerly owned by James and Rose Francis. Sohn and McClatchey were personally served with notice and the petition in October 2003. Ryan Companies filed a motion for leave to file an amended petition in December 2003, adding Jay Sohn and Julie McClatchy as named defendants. Approximately one month prior to trial, Ryan Companies' counsel informed the court of the unresisted pending motion to amend.
A bench trial was held on August 23 and 24, 2004. Prior to the presentation of evidence, the district court heard arguments related to the motion to amend. Defendants' counsel spoke on behalf of Sohn and McClatchey. The district court stated it was granting "a pending motion to amend." Defendants' counsel appeared formally for Sohn and McClatchey in an answer filed in October 2004. The district court, in a ruling filed in November 2004, concluded Ryan Companies failed to meet its burden of proof to establish that the Defendant's easements and covenants should be extinguished as unnecessary and denied Ryan Companies' request for relief. The court did not file a written order granting Ryan Companies' motion to amend. Its ruling did not name Sohn and McClatchey as defendants.
Ryan Companies filed a motion pursuant to Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 1.904(2). Among its requests, Ryan Companies asked the court to enter a written ruling pursuant to oral rulings made the morning of trial. The district court granted a default judgment against defendants "who were properly served in this case and who failed to appear or answer at trial": Mark and Barbara Domek, Jason Winkelman, Bryan and Andrea McGinness, Jeffery and Kay Huber, Diamond Brook, Inc., David and Elizabeth Mulcahy, and Linda Grandquist. It denied Ryan Companies' motion in all other relevant respects.
Ryan Companies appeals, arguing (1) the 1978 drainage easement on CCPSC Plat 2 should be terminated because the purposes for which it was granted have ceased to exist; and (2) the 1978 drainage covenants are limited by the stale use statute, Iowa Code § 614.24 (2003), and should be terminated, or, in the alternative, the covenants should be terminated because the purposes for which they were granted have ceased to exist or were abandoned or were impossible.
Defendants assert this appeal does not involve a final order and should be dismissed. In the alternative, defendants contend Ryan Companies may not extinguish perpetual drainage rights by implementing other drainage devices. II. Scope of Review
While the appeal was pending, Ryan Companies filed a motion to strike defendants' brief for being untimely, or in the alternative, a motion to file an untimely reply brief and supplemental appendix. Defendants do not resist the motion to file a reply brief and supplemental appendix. We grant Ryan Companies' motion to file a reply brief and supplemental appendix and consider them in reaching our conclusions in this case. See Iowa R. App. P. 6.22(5) (motions for procedural or temporary orders).
Our review of this equitable action is de novo. Iowa R. App. P. 6.4; Fencl v. City of Harpers Ferry, 620 N.W.2d 808, 811 (Iowa 2000).
III. Discussion
Parties who should be joined as defendants in a quiet title action "include all those who appear of record to have a possible claim or interest in the property." 65 Am. Jur. 2d Quieting Title § 65, at 48 (2001). Thus, " all owners of an interest in the property are presumably indispensable parties to such an action, and no decree affecting title to real estate may be entered unless all of the parties who will be directly affected by any judgment that may be rendered are before the court." Id. § 68, at 50-51 (emphasis added); see also Swan v. Clark, 36 Iowa 560, 561-62 (1873) (concluding reversal of decree issued in action to quiet title was required where the party with legal title claiming an interest adverse to plaintiff was not made a party to the proceeding); Flanders v. McClanahan, 24 Iowa 486, 490-91 (1868) (judgment reversed in a proceeding to quiet title and correct a misdescription of the premises running through the deeds of several prior grantors where all prior grantors or their heirs, if dead, were not made parties to the action).
Although the record is not entirely clear on this issue, it appears the district court granted the motion to amend and add Sohn and McClatchey as parties to the quiet title action. The district court's written ruling and order, however, did not adjudicate the rights of Sohn and McClatchey. Therefore, the court's order was not a final judgment. See Richers v. Marsh McLennan Group Assocs., 459 N.W.2d 478, 480 (Iowa 1990) (defining a final judgment as "one that conclusively adjudicates all of the rights of the parties"). Rather, the district court's ruling is "not finally decisive of the case" and, as such, is interlocutory. See IBP, Inc. v. Al-Gharib, 604 N.W.2d 621, 627 (Iowa 2000) (citations omitted). While dismissal of an appeal improvidently taken from interlocutory orders is not required, see Iowa R. App. P. 6.1(4), we conclude the requirements for an interlocutory appeal are not met in this case. See Iowa R. App. P. 6.2(1). Therefore, we must dismiss the appeal.