Gard v. Little Sioux Intercounty Drainage District of Monona & Harrison Counties

521 N.W.2d 696, 1994 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 208
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedSeptember 21, 1994
DocketNo. 93-416
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 521 N.W.2d 696 (Gard v. Little Sioux Intercounty Drainage District of Monona & Harrison Counties) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gard v. Little Sioux Intercounty Drainage District of Monona & Harrison Counties, 521 N.W.2d 696, 1994 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 208 (iowa 1994).

Opinion

ANDREASEN, Justice.

The plaintiffs brought a tort action against an intercounty drainage district and other defendants. Relying upon our decision in Fisher v. Dallas County, 369 N.W.2d 426 (Iowa 1985), the district court granted a motion to dismiss filed by the drainage district. On appeal, we affirm.

I. Background.

Ronald R. Gard and Howard D. Gard drowned on May 30, 1992 after their fishing boat capsized near a facility called the Sioux dam, or sill No. 4, on the Little Sioux River in Harrison County. The administrator of the estates of the decedents and the children of the deceased (Gard) brought an action for damages to the estate and for loss of parental consortium. The petition alleged the decedents were operating a fishing boat, with a single motor and propeller, when their boat collided with an underwater concrete deflector causing the propeller pin to shear. As a result the decedents were unable to maneuver and control their boat and it was swept into the turbulent area near the sill where the boat capsized and the decedents drowned. Gard alleged the defendants, Little Sioux Intereounty Drainage District of Monona and Harrison Counties (drainage district), Harrison County and the Harrison County Conservation Commission were jointly and severally negligent and their negligence was a proximate cause of the Gards’ injury and death.

The petition alleged all named defendants are municipalities as defined by section 613A.1 of the Code of Iowa, 1991. Under chapter 613A (now chapter 670) all municipalities in Iowa are subject to liability for torts, except as otherwise provided in the chapter. Iowa Code § 613A.2 (1991). The drainage district filed a motion to dismiss urging a drainage district is not a municipality subject to suit in tort. Gard filed a resistance to the motion and attached exhibits to support the resistance. Following the court’s decision sustaining the drainage district’s motion to dismiss, Gard filed a timely notice of appeal.

On appeal Gard argues Fisher is not applicable or should be overturned and that the drainage district waived immunity or the defense delineated in the Fisher case. Because it is not subject to suit in tort for money damages, the drainage district urges the dismissal of the suit was properly granted.

II. Scope of Review.

Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 104(b) permits dismissal of an action for “failure to state a claim on which any relief can be granted.” Dismissal is proper only if no state of facts is conceivable under which the plaintiff might show a right of recovery [698]*698against the defendant. Leuchtenmacher v. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co., 460 N.W.2d 858, 861 (Iowa 1990).

III. Fisher.

In Fisher we recognized that

[o]ur cases concerning the legal status of drainage districts have consistently noted the limited nature of their existence. They have only such powers as the statutes provide.
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The limited nature of a drainage district’s purposes and powers are, therefore, reflected in the limited circumstances in which a drainage district is subject to suit. Those circumstances have never been held to include demands for money damages on a tort theory for injury to land within the district. Suits have been allowed only to compel, complete, or correct the performance of a duty or the exercise of a power by those acting on behalf of a drainage district. Our cases have consistently held that a drainage district is not susceptible to suit for money damages. It has no corporate existence for that purpose.

Fisher, 369 N.W.2d at 429 (citation omitted).

Iowa has never allowed tort claims for money damages to be made against a drainage district. The adoption of chapter 613A, effective January 1, 1968, changed the law to allow tort claims to be made against municipalities. Although prior Iowa cases referred to drainage districts as political subdivisions or instrumentalities, Reed v. Muscatine-Louisa Drainage Dist. No. 13, 263 N.W.2d 548, 551 (Iowa 1978); State v. Des Moines County, 260 Iowa 341, 346, 149 N.W.2d 288, 291 (1967), in Fisher we rejected the argument that a drainage district is a municipality as defined in section 613A.1(1). Fisher, 369 N.W.2d at 430. A “municipality” is defined to mean “city, county, township, school district, and any other unit of local government except-” Iowa Code § 613A.1(1). The drainage district’s immunity from suit in tort does not stand or fall with the doctrine of sovereign immunity, but is based upon the special and limited powers and duties conferred by the Iowa Constitution and statutes. Fisher, 369 N.W.2d at 430. We expressly held

a drainage district is not a “municipality” within the meaning of Iowa Code section 613A.1(1). A drainage district is not subject to suit in tort for money damages. The district court did not err in dismissing plaintiffs’ petition with respect to the drainage district.

Id.

Gard argues Fisher should be overruled or distinguished. Although the provisions of Iowa Code chapter 455, cited in Fisher, are now contained in chapter 468, there has been no material change in the relevant sections. At the time of our decision in Fisher the legislative provision for creation and maintenance of levy and drainage districts were contained in chapter 455, the provisions for creation and maintenance of intercounty levy and drainage districts were contained in chapter 457, and the provisions for management of drainage districts by trustees were contained in chapter 462. Now, the provisions of these chapters are contained in chapter 468. The reorganization of the Code chapters does not deprive Fisher of its validity.

The pertinent statutory language remains. Fisher was decided in 1985 and was cited with approval in 1986. See National Properties Corp. v. Polk County, 386 N.W.2d 98, 107 (Iowa 1986). The legislature has not amended section 613A.1(1) to include a drainage district within the definition of a municipality. Under similar circumstances we have invoked the principle that issues of statutory interpretation settled by the court and not disturbed by the legislature have become tacitly accepted by the legislature. State v. Anderson, 517 N.W.2d 208, 214 (Iowa 1994). We then apply the doctrine of stare decisis. Cover v. Craemer, 258 Iowa 29, 34-35, 137 N.W.2d 595, 599 (1965).

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Gard v. LITTLE SIOUX INTERCOUNTY DRAINAGE
521 N.W.2d 696 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1994)

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521 N.W.2d 696, 1994 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gard-v-little-sioux-intercounty-drainage-district-of-monona-harrison-iowa-1994.