A 3-2 majority of the Iowa Supreme Court (with 2 justices not taking part) delivered a $25,000 reminder to Iowa attorneys on May 1 to not file frivolous claims.
The offending attorney had filed several claims against a shingles manufacturer and its president, claiming defective shingles. All of the claims against the individual president were eventually dismissed on summary judgment. The district court, the court of appeals, and then the supreme court all agreed that there was no basis in law or fact for the claims against the individual president.
Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 1.413 is Iowa's equivalent to Rule 11 of the Federal Civil Procedure Rules. The substance of Rule 1.413 also exists in section 619.19 of the Iowa Code. It provides that an attorney's signature on a pleading is a certificate that--among other things--the pleading is well grounded in fact and is warranted by existing law or a good faith argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law." If the attorney violates the rule, the court "shall" impose an "appropriate sanction."
The two dissenting justices did not disagree with the decision to sanction the attorney, but disagreed with the method for determining the amount of the sanction.
The case was Barnhill v. Iowa Dist. Ct. of Polk County, No. 06-0163 (Iowa Ct. App. May 1, 2009).
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