Montz v. Hill-Mont Land Co.

• Decision Date: 16 February 1983
• Docket Number: No. 67848,HILL-MONT,67848
• Citation: 329 N.W.2d 657
• Parties: Robert M. MONTZ and Shirley F. Montz, Appellees, v.LAND COMPANY and Central Iowa Railway and Development Co., Appellants.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 657

329 N.W.2d 657

Robert M. MONTZ and Shirley F. Montz, Appellees, v. HILL-MONT LAND COMPANY and Central Iowa Railway and Development Co., Appellants.

No. 67848.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Feb. 16, 1983.

Robert N. Downer and Thomas D. Hobart of Meardon, Sueppel, Downer & Hayes, Iowa City, for appellants.

Stephen C. Gerard and Dan F. Morrison of Gerard & Morrison, Sigourney, for appellees.

Considered by LeGRAND, P.J., and McCORMICK, McGIVERIN, LARSON and SCHULTZ, JJ.

McGIVERIN, Justice.

Defendants Hill-Mont Land Co. and Central Iowa Railway and Development Co., aggrieved by an interlocutory ruling on plaintiffs' application to adjudicate law points, Iowa R.Civ.P. 105, sought and were granted this appeal in advance of final judgment. Iowa R.App.P. 2. The appeal turns on the propriety of the trial court's ruling that, as a matter of law, plaintiffs' predecessors in title conveyed to defendants' predecessors an interest in land for a railroad right of way which was an easement rather than a determinable fee. We conclude that it was inappropriate under this record for the court to construe this conveyance instrument by a ruling on an application for adjudication of law points. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court's ruling and remand for further proceedings.

An application for separate adjudication of law points is properly considered only when the questions of law arise from uncontroverted pleadings. The application is inappropriate when material facts are disputed. M & W Farm Service Co. v. Callison, 285 N.W.2d 271, 274 (Iowa 1979). If the pleadings reveal fact issues with respect to the law points, disposition under rule 105 is inappropriate unless the parties stipulate the facts. Andersen Construction Co. of Council Bluffs v. National Bank of Des Moines, 262 N.W.2d 563, 564-65 (Iowa 1978).

The relevant pleadings in the present case consist of a petition and answer; the parties did not enter into a stipulation of facts. From the face of these pleadings we can glean allegations but few uncontroverted facts.

Plaintiffs Robert and Shirley Montz claim that they are owners of land in Keokuk County, Iowa, across which runs an allegedly abandoned railroad right of way. They request a declaratory judgment that the right of way, which was conveyed in a document labeled "Warranty Deed" in 1879 by their predecessors in title, was an easement which reverted to plaintiffs by reason of abandonment. Defendants in their answer deny plaintiffs' ownership of the land and the alleged conveyance, including plaintiffs' contention that it granted only an easement.

Under rule 105, plaintiffs requested the trial court to construe the grant of the alleged right of way as conveying an easement. The court so ruled, leaving only the issue of abandonment of the tracks for trial. Had the parties stipulated to the necessary facts, a ruling would have been appropriate. See Johnson v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 294 N.W.2d 63 (Iowa Ct.App.1980). However, as the operative facts were not stipulated, the deed cannot be construed without the opportunity for admission of additional evidence to...