Hoffman v. Rita Hoffman Lands, Ltd., No. 5-081/04-1094 (IA 2/24/2005)
| Decision Date | 24 February 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 5-081/04-1094,5-081/04-1094 |
| Parties | PADGETTE J. HOFFMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. RITA HOFFMAN LANDS, LTD., A Nebraska Limited Partnership, GARY M. HOFFMAN, CASEY J. HOFFMAN, ANDREA HOFFMAN, Trustee of the RITA O. HOFFMAN REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST dated JULY 5, 2002, and ANDREA HOFFMAN, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County, Timothy O'Grady, Judge.
Plaintiff-appellant appeals following the district court's dismissal of his petition seeking to quiet title to himself in a one-third interest in all real estate and other assets owned or controlled by defendants-appellees. REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Bruce Green of Willson & Pechacek, P.L.C., Council Bluffs, for appellant.
Scott Jochim, Omaha, Nebraska, and Edward Noethe of McGinn, McGinn, Jennings & Springer, Council Bluffs, for appellee.
Considered by Sackett, C.J., and Zimmer and Hecht, JJ.
Padgette J. Hoffman appeals following the district court's dismissal of his petition seeking to quiet title to himself in a one-third interest in all real estate and other assets owned or controlled by defendants Rita O. Hoffman Lands Ltd., Gary M. Hoffman, Casey J. Hoffman, Andrea L. Hoffman, Trustee of the Rita O. Hoffman Revocable Living Trust, and Andrea Hoffman. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss claiming (1) lack of subject matter jurisdiction, (2) lack of personal jurisdiction, (3) failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, and (4) in the alternative a stay of the proceedings. The district court found it had jurisdiction, denied the stay, and sustained defendants' motion finding plaintiff failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and plaintiff's claim was barred by the statute of limitations. We reverse and remand.
Our review of rulings on motions to dismiss is limited. Haupt v. Miller, 514 N.W.2d 905, 907 (Iowa 1994). We review a district court's ruling on a motion to dismiss for correction of errors at law. Iowa R. App. P. 6.4; McCormick v. Meyer, 582 N.W.2d 141, 144 (Iowa 1998).
Iowa is a notice pleading state. Rieff v. Evans, 630 N.W.2d 278, 292 (Iowa 2001). Since the advent of notice pleading under former Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 69(a),1 it is a rare case which will not survive a motion to dismiss. As a result, disposition of unmeritorious claims in advance of trial must now ordinarily be accomplished by other pretrial procedures which permit narrowing of the issues and piercing of the bare allegations contained in the petition. Rieff, 630 N.W.2d at 292; Haupt, 514 N.W.2d at 909. Very little is required in a petition to survive a motion to dismiss. Reiff, 630 N.W.2d at 292. A petition gives "fair notice" if it informs the defendant of the incident giving rise to the claim and of the claim's general nature. Id.; Smith v. Smith, 513 N.W.2d 728, 730 (Iowa 1994). One is not required to plead ultimate facts that support the elements of the claimed cause of action. But facts sufficient to apprise the defendant of the incident must be included in the petition in order to provide "fair notice" of the claim asserted. Reiff, 630 N.W.2d at 292; Schmidt v. Wilkinson, 340 N.W.2d 282, 283 (Iowa 1983). A motion to dismiss is properly granted only if a plaintiff's petition "on its face shows no right of recovery under any state of facts." Schaffer v. Frank Moyer Constr., Inc., 563 N.W.2d 605, 607 (Iowa 1997). The petition is assessed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and all doubts and ambiguities are resolved in plaintiff's favor. Below v. Skarr, 569 N.W.2d 510, 511 (Iowa 1997); Treimer v. Lett, 587 N.W.2d 622, 625 (Iowa Ct. App. 1998).
Plaintiff's petition alleges among other things that (1) he and his brothers, defendants Gary M. Hoffman and Casey J. Hoffman, are general partners of Rita Hoffman Lands, Ltd., (2) the last amendment to the Certificate of Limited Partnership was dated April 14, 1980, (3) defendant Andrea Hoffman is acting in some unknown capacity in handling the affairs of the partnership, (4) his mother Rita O. Hoffman executed a revocable living trust on July 5, 2002, which was last amended July 23, 2002, (5) his father died intestate on November 20, 1968 and was survived by his wife and three sons, (6) he inherited two-ninths of his father's estate, which he deeded to his mother, and she orally agreed she would make a will leaving one-third of her estate to him, (7) equitable principles make it wrongful to allow his mother to retain the property he conveyed to her without providing him with the benefits of the agreement, (8) he has requested copies of wills, trust documents and partnership agreements but has not been furnished copies, (9) he believes his mother breached her agreement with him by failing to provide him with one-third of her estate, and (10) he prays title be quieted in him to one-third of all assets his mother owned at the time of her death, including but not limited to her interest in the limited partnership, and that judgment be entered against such defendants as are found to have ownership or control of these assets or who have received proceeds of said assets, and that a constructive trust be imposed to enforce the relief requested.
Defendants' motion to dismiss claimed (1) the Iowa court lacked jurisdiction, (2) plaintiff's petition failed to state a claim under which relief could be granted as the claim is an alleged breach of an oral contract by Rita O. Hoffman, deceased, and her estate is not a party to the action, (3) the case should be stayed because there is litigation concerning the same parties and issues in Nebraska.2
The district court denied defendant's claim that the Iowa court did not have jurisdiction, finding that plaintiff claims a one-third interest in partnership assets, a part of which is land located in Mills County, Iowa. The court...
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