Gordon Berg Garrison v. New Fashion Pork LLP and BWT Holdings LLP ( 2022 )

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 21–0652
Submitted March 23, 2022—Filed June 30, 2022
GORDON BERG GARRISON,
Appellant,
vs.
NEW FASHION PORK LLP and BWT HOLDINGS LLLP,
Appellees.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Emmet County, Charles Borth,
Judge.
A farmer appeals a summary judgment order dismissing nuisance,
trespass, and drainage claims against a neighboring confined animal feeding
operation. AFFIRMED.
Waterman, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which
Christensen, C.J., and Mansfield and McDermott, JJ., joined. Mansfield, J., filed
a concurring opinion, in which Waterman, J., joined. Appel, J., filed a dissenting
opinion, in which Oxley, J., joined. McDonald, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in
which Oxley, J., joined.
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Wallace L. Taylor (argued), Cedar Rapids, and David A O’Brien, Dave
O’Brien Law, Cedar Rapids, for appellant.
James W. White (argued), James L. Pray, and Jennifer E. Lindberg of
Brown, Winick, Graves, Gross & Baskerville, P.L.C., Des Moines, for appellees.
Eldon L. McAfee and Julie Vyskocil of Brick Gentry, P.C., West Des
Moines, for amicus curiae Iowa Pork Producers Association.
Christina L. Gruenhagen of Parker & Geadelmann, P.L.L.C., West Des
Moines, for amicus curiae Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.
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WATERMAN, Justice.
In this appeal, the defendants and amici curiae renew prior invitations to
overrule Gacke v. Pork Xtra, L.L.C.’s controversial three-part test under the
inalienable rights clause, article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution. 684
N.W.2d 168, 177–79 (Iowa 2004). Gacke created the test to adjudicate
constitutional challenges to the statutory immunity enacted in our state’s
“right-to-farm” legislation, Iowa Code section 657.11 (2020).
The plaintiff in this case sued the neighboring confined animal feeding
operation (CAFO) twice. The first lawsuit was in federal court and was dismissed
on summary judgment for lack of expert testimony supporting the plaintiff’s
claims that the CAFO’s manure runoff caused excessive nitrate levels in an
ongoing violation of federal law. The federal court declined supplemental
jurisdiction over his state law claims. The plaintiff then refiled his lawsuit in Iowa
district court alleging common law nuisance, trespass, and drainage law
violations. The CAFO defendants moved for summary judgment based on the
statutory immunity in Iowa Code section 657.11 and the plaintiff’s lack of
evidence to establish he qualified for an exception to the immunity or prove
causation or damages. The plaintiff, relying on Gacke, argued section 657.11 as
applied to him is unconstitutional under Iowa’s inalienable rights clause.
The district court rejected the plaintiff’s constitutional challenge after
determining he failed to satisfy the three-part test in Gacke because his own
CAFO had benefited from the immunity. The court then granted the defendants’
motion for summary judgment because the plaintiff lacked expert testimony or
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other evidence to support any exception to the statutory immunity defense or to
prove causation or damages. We retained the plaintiff’s appeal.
On our review, for the reasons explained below, we affirm the summary
judgment. We overrule Gacke’s three-part test and apply rational basis review to
reject the plaintiff’s constitutional challenge to section 657.11 under the
inalienable rights clause. We conclude the plaintiff failed to preserve error on his
takings claim under article I, section 18 of the Iowa Constitution and failed to
generate a question of fact precluding summary judgment on statutory nuisance
immunity or causation for his trespass and drainage claims. We need not and
do not reach the plaintiff’s constitutional challenge to the damages limitations
in section 657.11A(3).
I. Background Facts and Proceedings.
In 1972, Gordon Garrison purchased approximately 300 acres of farmland
in Emmet County. He lives on the property in a home built in 1999. Garrison
has a bachelor’s of science in agricultural engineering from Iowa State
University. From the 1970s to 2018, he raised sheep on his property. Garrison
at one point owned a 500-head ewe flock and could have over 1,000 animals on
his property each birthing season. The sheep were kept in a barn most of the
winter. After the 1980s, the size of his flock began to decrease. Garrison initially
disposed of the sheep manure by spreading it on his fields. He later transitioned
to using a manure compost pile, which remains on his property.1 Some of his
1The record did not include any formal complaints Garrison received from nearby
landowners regarding his manure compost pile. The defendants’ director of environmental
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land continues to be farmed, but most of his acreage “is being cared for in
restoration of the ‘Prairie Pothole’ ecology that was indigenous to northwest
Iowa.”
Garrison, with his family, owns and leases another 260 acres in Kossuth
County and 360 acres in Wright County. Garrison had a handshake agreement
allowing the renter in Kossuth County to apply manure to the fields at agronomic
rates. The renter in Wright County applied manure to fields without Garrison’s
permission. Neither operation generated any nuisance claims by neighbors.
In December of 2015, New Fashion Pork (NFP) started operating a CAFO.
The CAFO is uphill and adjacent to Garrison’s property. NFP’s subsidiary, BWT
Holdings, owns additional land adjacent to Garrison’s property for disposal of
manure. The confinement building is approximately a half-mile away from
Garrison’s property line and is permitted to hold 4,400 to 8,800 hogs depending
on their weight. The defendants put pattern tiling in the BWT property, which
Garrison claims led to substantially more drainage flowing to his property.
According to Garrison, in the fall of 2016, NFP’s “manure application was
done when the field was saturated with water so the field could not absorb the
manure and the manure discharged to [his] property.” In December 2018, NFP
applied manure to frozen ground in violation of state regulations. The Iowa
Department of Natural Resources entered a consent order under which the
defendants paid an administrative penalty of $4,800 for that violation.
services mentioned he could smell manure from Garrison’s property and had considered
“planting trees on the north property line to protect our residence from his odor.”
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From 2016 to 2020, Garrison documented the times on his property that
he smelled the CAFO’s odor. He estimated that he could smell its odor more than
100 days of the year, sometimes all day. The odor interferes with his enjoyment
of working outdoors, going on walks around his property, and his sleep. His son
confirmed the odor can be very pervasive depending on the wind direction.
The defendants undertook several measures to ameliorate the odor. NFP
adjusted the placement of pit fans. In August of 2016, NFP installed an
electrostatic precipitating fence on the side of the confinement building facing
Garrison’s property. That fence was the first of its kind on a hog farm.
Garrison took water samples from a stream that flows through his land
from BWT’s property. From 2001 to 2013, Garrison took thirty-two samples at
irregular intervals in accordance with his training from the IOWATER program.
From April 15, 2016 to June 20, 2019, Garrison took water samples from the
same stream at more regular intervals and sent the samples to be tested by the
Iowa State Hygienic Laboratory. According to Garrison, “[a]ll the samples, with
one exception when chicken litter was applied to the Sanderson field, had nitrate
levels of 10 ppm or less.” The samples tested by the Iowa State laboratory have
on average higher nitrate levels than Garrison’s samples collected before 2013.
The Iowa State laboratory samples show a substantial, consistent decrease in
nitrate levels from 2016 to 2019 and do not show a spike in nitrate levels that
would correlate with NFP’s manure spreading in 2016 or 2018.
On December 20, 2018, three years after the CAFO began operating,
Garrison filed a lawsuit against NFP and BWT in the United States District Court
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for the Northern District of Iowa. Garrison alleged the CAFO violated the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Water Act (CWA),
and multiple state laws. The defendants moved for summary judgment. The
federal court found that Garrison relied exclusively on his water tests to attempt
to “create a genuine issue of material fact about the ongoing nature of
defendants’ actions,” the “water tests do not show a pattern of ongoing
violations,” the nitrate levels do not correlate with annual or biannual manure
applications, and the 2016 and 2018 incidents are past (not ongoing) violations.
Garrison v. New Fashion Pork LLP, 449 F. Supp. 3d 863, 873–74 (N.D. Iowa
2020). The federal court elaborated:
[P]laintiff has not designated any expert to testify about the nitrate
levels or specifically about the issue of causation. Even if the Court
allows each of plaintiff’s proposed experts’ testimony in its entirety,
plaintiff cannot link the nitrate levels in the water tests to
misapplication of the manure. Plaintiff’s proposed experts discuss
manure management plans and soil drainage issues, but the Court
finds no expert testimony in the record linking defendants’ alleged
overapplication or misapplication of manure to higher levels of
nitrates in plaintiff’s water tests. Although taking water samples and
testing them for nitrates may not require scientific or specialized
skill, interpreting the results does require expert analysis. Here,
plaintiff has provided no expert testimony, admissible or not, tying
defendants’ alleged misapplications or overapplications of manure
to the nitrate levels in the stream on plaintiff’s property. Plaintiff has
also not established a baseline to show that the nitrate levels are
occurring at a higher rate than before defendants started spreading
manure or at a higher rate than would be expected to naturally
occur. Without an established baseline or metric there is no evidence
that the nitrate levels are occurring at a higher rate attributed to
runoff from defendants’ fields.
Id. (record citation omitted). Noting “RCRA and the CWA do not support citizen
suits for wholly past violations,” id. at 874, the federal court granted the
defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing Garrison’s federal claims
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because there was no “genuine issue of material fact as to any current and
ongoing violations of RCRA and the CWA,” and declined to exercise supplemental
jurisdiction over Garrison’s state law nuisance, trespass, and drainage claims,
id. at 870, 874–75. Garrison did not appeal the federal court judgment.
On June 1, 2020, four-and-a-half years after the CAFO began operating,
Garrison filed this civil action in the Iowa District Court for Emmet County
alleging he is entitled to damages because NFP and BWT created a nuisance,
trespassed on his property, and violated Iowa’s drainage laws. Under the
nuisance claim, Garrison alleged he was entitled to damages because of the
CAFO’s odor for “the devaluation of his property” and his loss of “use and
enjoyment of his property.” Under the trespass and drainage claims, Garrison
alleged NFP over-applied manure and the defendants’ increased drainage
trespassed onto his land. On August 31, the defendants filed their answer and
alleged, in part, that Garrison’s “claims are barred, in whole or in part, by Iowa
Code § 657.11(2)” and “barred by res judicata, issue preclusion and/or claim
preclusion.” The defendants filed an amended answer on January 21, 2021, and
further alleged that Garrison’s “claims are barred, in whole or in part, by Iowa
Code § 657.11A(3).”
Garrison moved to strike the defendants’ affirmative defenses, arguing
section 657.11(2) and section 657.11A(5) are unconstitutional as applied to him
under the inalienable rights clause of the Iowa Constitution and that
section 657.11A(3)’s damage cap is unconstitutional on its face and as applied.
His motions did not rely on the takings clause in article I, section 18 of the Iowa
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Constitution. Garrison also filed a motion in limine to exclude evidence of his
ownership of the Kossuth County property and manure spreading at that
location, and the manure pile on his farmland in Emmet County. The defendants
resisted the motions and argued that Gacke should be overruled.
On March 8, the defendants moved for summary judgment arguing that
they were entitled to the protections in sections 657.11 and 657.11A and that
Garrison’s trespass and drainage claims fail as a matter of law, as the federal
court already determined. Garrison resisted by arguing the defendants are not
entitled to statutory immunity protection, issue preclusion does not apply, and
the water tests and additional evidence create a genuine issue of material fact.
On April 6, the district court issued an order denying Garrison’s facial challenge
to section 657.11A(3)’s cap on damages and denying his motion in limine. The
court reserved the issue of Garrison’s as-applied challenge under the inalienable
rights clause. The court held an evidentiary hearing on April 9.
Garrison submitted several expert reports and affidavits. Roger Patocka, a
professional engineer, opined that “precipitation does accumulate on the BWT
Holdings tract, and surface runoff events do discharge to and traverse the
Garrison property downstream, and eventually reach the West Fork Des Moines
River and beyond” and BWT’s “[t]ile systems can be more carefully designed to
match soil and groundwater characteristics to accommodate better manure
management.” Robert Streit, a consulting agronomist, concluded “[b]ased on the
application rates of manure in [2017 and 2018], the pounds of nitrogen exceeded
the appropriate rate for the amount of nitrogen needed by the corn for optimum
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yields for the crop year 2018.” And Paul Kassel, an Iowa State University
Extension Service agronomist, offered recommendations relying on the Corn
Nitrogen Rate Calculator.
On May 4, the district court ruled that section 657.11(2) is not
unconstitutional as applied to Garrison under the inalienable rights clause of
the Iowa Constitution under Gacke because Garrison “received some benefit”
from the statutory nuisance immunity. The court denied Garrison’s motion to
strike the defendants’ affirmative defenses under sections 657.11(2) and
657.11A(5). The next day, Garrison filed a motion asking the court to reconsider
and requested, in part, that the court address his takings challenge and “clarify
that the ‘as-applied’ analysis only applies to damages other than for diminution
in value to [his] property.” The district court, without ruling on any takings claim,
entered a ruling granting the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on
May 10, which Garrison appealed before the district court ruled on his motion
to reconsider. He did not request a limited remand to allow the district court to
rule on his motion to reconsider.
We retained the appeal. On appeal, Garrison argues the district court erred
in finding sections 657.11(2) and 657.11A(5) are constitutional as applied,
granting summary judgment, and finding section 657.11A(3) constitutional. The
defendants argue Garrison failed to preserve error “on the issue of whether the
application of Iowa Code section 657.11 constitutes a ‘taking’ with regard to his
alleged diminution in property damages” and on his as-applied challenge to
section 657.11A(3). The defendants further argue the district court correctly
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found section 657.11 is constitutional as applied to Garrison, they are entitled
to the statutory immunity protections of section 657.11, section 657.11A(3) is
constitutional on its face, and the district court correctly granted summary
judgment on the trespass and drainage claims. Alternatively, the defendants
argue we should overrule Gacke and apply a rational basis test to find
section 657.11 constitutional.
We allowed the Iowa Pork Producers Association and Iowa Farm Bureau
Federation to file an amici curiae brief supporting the defendants’ positions,
including the request to overrule Gacke. The amici brief argues that “[i]n addition
to a lack of evidence,” Garrison’s trespass “claim fails because he lacks the
requisite exclusive possessory interest in the water flowing across his property,
and because Iowa law contains the required manure land application rate
calculations rather than a model constructed for inorganic commercial fertilizer.”
II. Standard of Review.
“Constitutional claims are reviewed de novo.” City of Sioux City v.
Jacobsma, 862 N.W.2d 335, 339 (Iowa 2015). “We review rulings on statutory
interpretation for correction of errors at law.” EMC Ins. Grp. v. Shepard, 960
N.W.2d 661, 668 (Iowa 2021).
We also review rulings granting summary judgment for correction of errors
at law. Id. “On motion for summary judgment, the court must: (1) view the facts
in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, and (2) consider on behalf of
the nonmoving party every legitimate inference reasonably deduced from the
record.” Morris v. Legends Fieldhouse Bar & Grill, LLC, 958 N.W.2d 817, 821
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(Iowa 2021) (quoting Van Fossen v. MidAmerican Energy Co., 777 N.W.2d 689,
692 (Iowa 2009)). “Summary judgment is proper when the moving party has
shown ‘there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is
entitled to judgment as a matter of law.’ ” EMC Ins. Grp., 960 N.W.2d at 668
(quoting MidWestOne Bank v. Heartland Co-op, 941 N.W.2d 876, 882 (Iowa
2020)); see also Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.981(3).
III. Analysis.
We begin with an overview of Iowa’s unique jurisprudence on the
constitutionality of statutory nuisance immunity for farming operations. We next
address whether Garrison preserved error on his challenge to Iowa Code
section 657.11(2) under the takings clause in article I, section 18 of the Iowa
Constitution, and we conclude he did not. We then analyze whether to retain
Gacke’s three-part test under the inalienable rights clause in article I, section 1
of the Iowa Constitution. We overrule the test because it was wrongly decided, is
difficult to administer, and has been superseded by subsequent decisions using
the rational basis test. Applying rational basis review, we reject Garrison’s
inalienable rights challenge to sections 657.11(2) and 657.11A(5). Finally, we
conclude the district court correctly entered summary judgement because
Garrison lacked evidence to generate a jury question on any exception to the
statutory immunity for his nuisance claim or causation for his trespass and
drainage claims.
A. Iowa’s Unique Jurisprudence on the Constitutionality of Statutory
Nuisance Immunity for Farming Operations. This appeal represents a
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recurring challenge to the constitutionality of the immunity provision in Iowa’s
right-to-farm legislation, Iowa Code section 657.11(2), which provides:
An animal feeding operation, as defined in section 459.102, shall
not be found to be a public or private nuisance under this chapter
or under principles of common law, and the animal feeding
operation shall not be found to interfere with another person’s
comfortable use and enjoyment of the person’s life or property under
any other cause of action. However, this section shall not apply if
the person bringing the action proves that an injury to the person
or damage to the person’s property is proximately caused by either
of the following:
a. The failure to comply with a federal statute or regulation or
a state statute or rule which applies to the animal feeding operation.
b. Both of the following:
(1) The animal feeding operation unreasonably and for
substantial periods of time interferes with the person’s comfortable
use and enjoyment of the person’s life or property.
(2) The animal feeding operation failed to use existing prudent
generally accepted management practices reasonable for the
operation.2
The legislation codified the purpose of the immunity provision in the preceding
subsection: to promote agriculture by reducing nuisance litigation costs. Id.§ 657.11(1).
2Additionally, Iowa Code section 657.11A(5) provides:
This section shall not apply if the person bringing the action proves that the public
or private nuisance or interference with another person’s comfortable use and
enjoyment of the person’s life or property under any other cause of action is
proximately caused by any of the following:
a. The failure to comply with a federal statute or regulation or a state
statute or rule which applies to the animal feeding operation.
b. The failure to use existing prudent generally utilized management
practices reasonable for the animal feeding operation.
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In 1998, we held a similar nuisance immunity statute enacted by the
legislature for agricultural operations was in effect “an easement” imposed on
property owners affected by the nuisance and thereby constituted a “taking” of
their property in violation of article I, section 18 of the Iowa Constitution.
Bormann v. Bd. of Supervisors, 584 N.W.2d 309, 316, 321 (Iowa 1998) (en banc)
(striking down Iowa Code § 352.11(1)(a) (1995)). In 2004, in Gacke, we clarified
Bormann to limit the recovery under a takings theory to the diminution in value
of the affected property:
In conclusion, we hold that Bormann and state takings
jurisprudence requires us to invalidate the statutory immunity only
insofar as it prevents property owners subjected to a nuisance from
recovering damages for the diminution in value of their property.
The Takings Clause does not prohibit the legislature from granting
animal feeding operations immunity from liability for any other
damages traditionally allowed under a nuisance theory of recovery.
Gacke, 684 N.W.2d at 175. Thus, affected neighbors could not rely on a takings
theory to recover other noneconomic damages for nuisance, such as loss of
enjoyment of the property. Id. But Gacke also found a different path to challenge
the statutory immunity as unconstitutional as applied to the plaintiff under the
inalienable rights clause in article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution. Id. at
175–79. The plaintiffs, who met a new three-part test created in Gacke, avoided
the statutory nuisance defense in section 657.11(2). Id. at 178–79. In 2018, we
reaffirmed the Gacke test in Honomichl v. Valley View Swine, LLC, stating:
For courts to determine whether section 657.11(2) is
unconstitutional as applied to plaintiffs, plaintiffs must show they
(1) “receive[d] no particular benefit from the nuisance immunity
granted to their neighbors other than that inuring to the public in
general[,]” (2) “sustain[ed] significant hardship[,]” and (3) “resided on
their property long before any animal operation was commenced” on
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neighboring land and “had spent considerable sums of money in
improvements to their property prior to construction of the
defendant’s facilities.”
914 N.W.2d 223, 235–36 (Iowa 2018) (alterations in original) (quoting Gacke, 684
N.W.2d at 178). We made clear in Honomichl that “the Gacke factors require a
fact-based analysis that generally requires a trial on the merits, or at least an
evidentiary pretrial hearing.” Id. at 238. Indeed, Honomichl reversed a summary
judgment and remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing on the Gacke test
before a trial on the merits on the nuisance claims. Id. at 238–39.
Neither Gacke nor Honomichl cited any authority for adopting the
three-part test. No other court in any jurisdiction has adopted or used the test.
The Honomichl majority rejected calls by the defendants and amici to overrule
Gacke. Id. at 226, 236–37. Two justices in Honomichl concluded Gacke should
be overruled. Id. at 239–40 (Waterman, J., concurring specially, joined by
Mansfield, J.).
As Honomichl acknowledged, Gacke and Bormann stand alone. Id. at 233(majority opinion). “All fifty states have right-to-farm laws that provide farmers
with various forms of statutory immunity from nuisance claims similar to
section 657.11(2).” Id. at 232. “Iowa is the only state to hold that the statutory
immunity available under its right-to-farm law is unconstitutional in any
manner.” Id. at 233 & n.2 (collecting cases rejecting constitutional challenges);
see, e.g., Moon v. N. Idaho Farmers Ass’n, 96 P.3d 637, 644–45 (Idaho 2004)
(rejecting Bormann’s easement theory and declining “to hold that the nuisance
immunity provision [in Idaho’s right-to-farm law] creates an easement in favor of
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the grass farmers” whose smoke from burning stubble drifted onto the plaintiff’s
land); Lindsey v. DeGroot, 898 N.E.2d 1251, 1259 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009) (“[L]ike
the Idaho and Texas courts, we have found nothing to suggest that Indiana has
adopted the seemingly unique Iowa holding that the right to maintain a nuisance
is an easement, and the Lindseys have failed to explain why we should.”);
Labrayere v. Bohr Farms, LLC, 458 S.W.3d 319, 327–34 (Mo. 2015) (en banc)
(rejecting state constitutional challenges to Missouri’s statutory immunity for
agricultural operations); Pure Air & Water Inc. of Chemung Cnty. v. Davidsen, 668
N.Y.S.2d 248, 250 (App. Div. 1998) (rejecting due process challenge to New York’s
right-to-farm statute’s immunity for private nuisance, noting that the plaintiffs
lack “a vested interest in any rule of the common law”); Barrera v. Hondo Creek
Cattle Co., 132 S.W.3d 544, 547, 549 (Tex. App. 2004) (rejecting takings
challenge to one-year statute of repose for nuisance claims against cattle feed
lot).
After Honomichl, additional appellate decisions in other states have
confirmed that Iowa remains an outlier. The South Dakota Supreme Court
recently declined to follow our precedent in its decision rejecting constitutional
challenges to a large-scale wind energy farm with 132 wind turbines spanning
three counties. Ehlebracht v. Crowned Ridge Wind II, LLC, 972 N.W.2d 477, 481,
491–92 (S.D. 2022) (“But the decision in Bormann appears to be an outlier. We
have never regarded the right to maintain a nuisance as an easement.”); see also
Marsh v. Sandstone N., LLC, 179 N.E.3d 402, 426–30 (Ill. App. Ct. 2020)
(concluding the fee-shifting statute within right-to-farm legislation did not violate
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the special legislation clause, equal protection clause, or separation of powers
clause in the Illinois Constitution); Himsel v. Himsel, 122 N.E.3d 935, 945–49
(Ind. Ct. App. 2019) (holding an Indiana right-to-farm law did not constitute a
taking or violate its open courts or privileges and immunities clauses); Rural
Empowerment Ass’n for Cmty. Help v. State, 868 S.E.2d 645, 655 (N.C. Ct. App.
2021) (reviewing the constitutionality of amendments to North Carolina’s
right-to-farm statutes and holding that “[t]he Amendments are a valid exercise
of legislative and the State’s police powers, do not violate the Law of the Land
Clause or Due Process, are not a special or private law, and do not deprive a
prospective plaintiff of the right to a jury trial”).3
Against this backdrop, we understand why litigants and amici curiae
persist in calling for Gacke to be overruled. But as we explain next, Gacke’s
takings holding clarifying Bormann is outside the scope of this appeal.
3As noted, the constitutional challenges to the nuisance immunities in right-to-farm
statutes failed in every other court. The statutes in Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas included
a one-year statute of repose after the CAFO begins operation, with nuisance claims allowed
during that one-year time window. Ind. Code § 32–30–6–9(d) (2022); N.C. Gen. Stat. § 106–701
(2022); Tex. Agric. Code § 251.004(a) (2022). The Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas courts
enforced the statutes of repose, but rejected the constitutional challenges without relying on the
window of time allowed to sue in those states. See Himsel, 122 N.E.3d at 945–50; Lindsey, 898
N.E.2d at 1257–62; Rural Empowerment Ass’n, 868 S.E.2d at 652–55; Barrera, 132 S.W.3d at549–50; see also Marsh, 179 N.W.3d at 423, 425–30 (holding attorney fee shifting statute is
constitutional, which is part of Illinois’s right-to-farm laws that also includes a one-year statute
of repose). The appellate courts in the other four states adjudicating constitutional challenges
upheld immunity provisions without any time window for nuisance claims; rather, the immunity
was immediately available to qualifying farm operations. See Moon, 96 P.3d at 641–42, 646–49
(citing Idaho Code § 22–4803A(6) (2003)); Labrayere, 458 S.W.3d at 326, 327–34 (citing Mo. Rev.
Stat. § 537.296 (2012)); Pure Air & Water, 668 N.Y.S.2d at 249–50 (citing N.Y. Agric. & Mkts. Law
§ 308(3) (McKinney 1996)); Ehlebracht, 972 N.W.2d at 487–92 (citing S.D. Codified Laws § 21–
10–2 (2019)). Thus, the constitutionality of these immunity provisions does not turn on the
availability of a window of time to bring a nuisance action after the CAFO begins operating. In
any event, Garrison waited three years to file suit in federal court and four-and-a-half years to
file in state court after the defendants’ CAFO began—his lawsuits would have been time-barred
under a one- or two-year statute of repose.
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B. Whether Garrison Preserved Error on a Takings Claim. The
defendants argue Garrison failed to preserve error on his takings claim. We
agree. The district court never ruled on Garrison’s takings claim before he
appealed and deprived that court of jurisdiction. “It is a fundamental doctrine of
appellate review that issues must ordinarily be both raised and decided by the
district court before we will decide them on appeal.” Meier v. Senecaut, 641
N.W.2d 532, 537 (Iowa 2002). “When a district court fails to rule on an issue
properly raised by a party, the party who raised the issue must file a motion
requesting a ruling in order to preserve error for appeal.” Id. And the “moving
party is deemed to have waived and abandoned a posttrial motion when that
party files a notice of appeal.” Freer v. DAC, Inc., 929 N.W.2d 685, 687–88 (Iowa
2019). These basic principles compel the conclusion that Garrison failed to
preserve his takings claim for appellate review.
Garrison alleged in his petition that the defendant’s CAFO interfered with
his “use and enjoyment of his property and result[ed] in the devaluation of his
property.” The defendants denied this allegation and alleged affirmative defenses.
Garrison moved to strike the defendants’ affirmative defenses, arguing “Iowa
Code § 657.11(2) is unconstitutional as applied to the facts of this case pursuant
to Article I, Section 1, of the Iowa Constitution” under Gacke. In his
accompanying brief, Garrison quoted Gacke:
[S]ection 657.11(2) violates article I, section 18 of the Iowa
Constitution to the extent it deprives property owners of a remedy
for the taking of their property resulting from a nuisance created by
an animal feeding operation. In addition, we conclude
section 657.11(2), as applied under the circumstances of this case,
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constitutes an unreasonable exercise of the state’s police power and
therefore violates article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution.
684 N.W.2d at 171. But Garrison went on to argue the inalienable rights clause—
not the takings clause. When the defendants opposed his motion, Garrison’s
response asserted Gacke’s three-part test under the inalienable rights clause
without even mentioning the takings clause.
The defendants moved for summary judgment arguing, in part, that they
“are entitled to nuisance immunity under Iowa Code section 657.11.” In
Garrison’s resistance to summary judgment, he again failed to raise any
argument that section 657.11(2) is unconstitutional under the takings clause.
The district court ruled that section 657.11(2) was constitutional as applied to
Garrison under Gacke’s three-part inalienable rights clause test because he
received a benefit from the statutory nuisance immunity. On that basis, the court
denied Garrison’s motion to strike the defendants’ affirmative defenses under
Iowa Code sections 657.11(2) and 657.11A(5). The court did not rule on any
takings claim under article I, section 18.
Garrison filed a motion to reconsider that for the first time specifically
asked the district court to rule on his takings claim.
[T]he Court should clarify that the “as-applied” analysis only applies
to damages other than for diminution in value to Mr. Garrison’s
property. The Gacke court reaffirmed the decision in Bormann v. Bd.
of Supervisors, 584 N.W.2d 309 (Iowa 1998), that statutory
immunity as to property damages violates the Takings Clause of the
Iowa Constitution, and to the extent of property damages, there are
no circumstances under which the immunity would be
constitutional. As the Gacke court put it:
In conclusion, we hold that Bormann and state takings
jurisprudence requires us to invalidate the statutory
20
immunity only insofar as it prevents property owners
subjected to a nuisance from recovering damages for the
diminution in value of their property.
So, the Defendants cannot rely on the immunity in §§ 657.11 and
657.11A with respect to Mr. Garrison’s claim for diminution in value
of his property. The Court should amend its Order to clarify this
point.
A few days later, the court granted the defendants’ motion for summary
judgment without deciding or even mentioning Garrison’s takings claim. The
court reaffirmed its ruling that section 657.11(2) is constitutional as applied to
Garrison under the inalienable rights clause and found the “Defendants are
therefore entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the Plaintiff’s claim that
Defendants CAFO is a nuisance and interferes with Plaintiff’s use and enjoyment
of his property.” Garrison promptly filed his notice of appeal without any district
court ruling on his pending motion to reconsider the belatedly asserted his
takings claim. His notice of appeal deprived the district court of jurisdiction to
rule on that motion. See Freer, 929 N.W.2d at 688 (holding the plaintiff by filing
her notice of appeal “waived and abandoned her posttrial motion”).4
We conclude Garrison failed to preserve error on his takings claim, and for
that reason we do not reach it.
C. Whether to Overrule Gacke. The district court ruled that Garrison
benefited from section 657.11(2)’s statutory immunity when he operated his own
CAFO and, therefore, could not show the statute was unconstitutional as applied
to him under the first part of Gacke’s three-part test. Garrison argues the court
4Garrison also failed to file a motion in our court requesting a limited remand to allow
the district court to rule on his motion to reconsider.
21
erred in ruling that he benefited from the statute without any lawsuit or claim
against him to trigger its immunity protection. The defendants and amici argue
the court correctly applied Gacke and, alternatively, argue we should overrule
Gacke as outdated and wrongly decided.
We agree Gacke’s three-part test should be overruled. As noted above,
Gacke is an outlier. This appeal once again illustrates how Gacke’s three-part
test, which Gacke created out of whole cloth, engenders unnecessary litigation
and is difficult to administer. See Honomichl, 914 N.W.2d at 239–40
(Waterman, J., concurring specially). Gacke was wrongly decided in that it failed
to apply rational basis review to a challenge under article I, section 1 of our
constitution to section 657.11(2). Our prior and subsequent decisions, as
discussed below, have made clear that challenges under the inalienable rights
clause to regulatory statutes must be adjudicated under the highly deferential
rational basis test. Section 657.11(2) passes muster under that test.
Gacke itself recognized this statutory immunity falls within the police
powers of the state:
The legislature’s objective of promoting animal agriculture in this
state promotes the interests of the public generally and the
immunity granted in this statute bears a reasonable relationship to
this legislative objective. Therefore, even though individual
producers are the direct beneficiaries of the statutory immunity, we
think this provision is within the police power of the state.
684 N.W.2d at 178. Despite that acknowledgment, Gacke failed to apply
traditional rational basis review. Instead of asking whether the law furthers a
reasonable legislative objective, it asked whether its application to the plaintiffs
in that particular case did—effectively the opposite of a rational basis test. See
22
id. at 178–79. Gacke thereby broke new ground by sustaining an as-applied
constitutional challenge to section 657.11(2) under the inalienable rights clause.
Article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution provides,
All men and women are, by nature, free and equal, and have
certain inalienable rights—among which are those of enjoying and
defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting
property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.
Gacke reiterated that “[t]he rights guaranteed by this provision are subject to
reasonable regulation by the state in the exercise of its police power.” 684 N.W.2d
at 176. Yet Gacke nevertheless held that section 657.11(2) was unconstitutional
as applied to the plaintiffs—only the second time in Iowa’s history that a plaintiff
succeeded in challenging legislation under the inalienable rights clause.5
In our view, the Gacke test is difficult to administer and requires
unnecessary and duplicative litigation. By overruling Gacke, we eliminate the
need to adjudicate its subsidiary issues, such as defining when neighboring
claimants who raise livestock personally receive a “benefit” from
section 657.11(2) under the first part of Gacke’s three-part test. See 684 N.W.2d
at 178 (requiring proof the plaintiff “receive[d] no particular benefit from the
nuisance immunity”). Is the plaintiff’s own CAFO adjacent to the defendant’s
sufficient to establish a benefit? What about a plaintiff’s CAFO at another
location, such as Garrison’s farmland in Kossuth and Wright counties where his
tenants spread manure on his fields? Is a benefit shown when a neighbor
5Over a century ago, in State v. Osborne, our court relied on the both the due process
clause and inalienable rights clause to strike down a statute imposing bond and licensing
requirements on transient merchants. 154 N.W. 294, 297, 300–01 (Iowa 1915). Garrison has not
raised a due process challenge to section 657.11(2).
23
refrained from suing the plaintiff because section 657.11(2) is on the books? Or
is a lawsuit against the plaintiff required? Or a successful motion for summary
judgment applying section 657.11(2)? Gacke left those questions unanswered
presumably because the Gackes did not raise livestock. See generally id. at 178–
79.
The second part of the Gacke test, that the plaintiff “sustain[ed] significant
hardship,” id. at 178, requires much the same evidence that would prove the
CAFO is a nuisance as well as meet the statutory exception to immunity. See
Iowa Code § 657.11(2)(b)(1) (conditioning an exception to immunity on proof the
CAFO “unreasonably and for substantial periods of time interferes” with the
plaintiff’s use and enjoyment of property). And Gacke’s third part of the test, that
the plaintiff resided on their property before the CAFO commenced, 684 N.W.2d
at 178, involves the same evidence required to show the plaintiff did not come to
the nuisance under common law, see Freeman v. Grain Processing Corp., 895
N.W.2d 105, 120–21 (Iowa 2017) (discussing “priority of location” as a factor for
determining the existence of a nuisance). Thus, the Gacke test requires two
trials, at which the same evidence would be presented to decide functionally
equivalent, overlapping issues. Indeed, Honomichl candidly acknowledged that
the Gacke test leads to duplicative hearings: “While a district court may conduct
a pretrial hearing for the specific purpose of determining the as-applied
challenge, the plaintiffs can still rely on the exceptions to the immunity under
sections 657.11(2)(a) and (b) if the district court finds the statute is not
unconstitutional as applied.” 914 N.W.2d at 238 (majority opinion). Overruling
24
Gacke will reduce the cost of CAFO litigation by eliminating this duplicative
evidentiary hearing and avoiding unnecessary constitutional adjudication.
“We do not overturn our precedents lightly and will not do so absent a
showing the prior decision was clearly erroneous.” McElroy v. State, 703 N.W.2d
385, 394–95 (Iowa 2005) (collecting cases). “[S]tare decisis does not prevent the
court from reconsidering, repairing, correcting or abandoning past judicial
announcements when error is manifest . . . .” Id. at 395 (alteration in original)
(quoting Miller v. Westfield Ins., 606 N.W.2d 301, 306 (Iowa 2000) (en banc)). And
“[s]tare decisis has limited application in constitutional matters.” Goodwin v.
Iowa Dist. Ct., 936 N.W.2d 634, 649 (Iowa 2019) (McDonald, J., concurring
specially) (“Thus, ‘[w]hen faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my
rule is simple: We should not follow it. This view of stare decisis follows directly
from the Constitution’s supremacy over other sources of law—including our own
precedents.’ ” (alteration in original) (quoting Gamble v. United States, 139 S. Ct.
1960, 1984 (2019) (Thomas, J., concurring))). As explained in the Honomichl
special concurrence, we are convinced Gacke was clearly erroneous when
decided and has been undermined by our later decisions applying the rational
basis test. Gacke’s three-part test has not metastasized beyond chapter 657 and
the test remains an outlier in Iowa jurisprudence, as well as nationally.6
6Several of our decisions discussed Gacke without reaffirming, expanding, or even
applying its three-part test. In Merrill v. Valley View Swine, LLC, we unanimously
affirmed the district court order under Iowa Code section 657.11(5) requiring the
plaintiffs to pay the defendant CAFO operator’s costs and expenses incurred defending
frivolous claims after the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their nuisance claims. 941
N.W.2d 10, 12, 18–20 (Iowa 2020). In Board of Water Works Trustees v. SAC County
Board of Supervisors, we declined to apply or extend Gacke to claims between public
25
After Gacke, we have correctly applied the rational basis test to adjudicate
constitutional challenges to social and regulatory statutes under the inalienable
rights clause. See Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc. v. Reynolds, 962
N.W.2d 37, 46 (Iowa 2021) (applying rational basis review to a constitutional
challenge under both the inalienable rights and equal protection clauses of the
Iowa Constitution to legislation conditioning grant eligibility); Gray v. Oliver, 943
N.W.2d 617, 629–32 (Iowa 2020) (concluding a limitation on a
successor-in-interest’s ability to prosecute another’s claim of legal malpractice
did not violate the due process clause or the inalienable rights clause under
rational basis review); Clark v. Ins. Co. State of Pa., 927 N.W.2d 180, 190–91
(Iowa 2019) (applying rational basis review to reject an inalienable rights clause
challenge to statutory immunity for insurance safety inspections); Jacobsma,
862 N.W.2d at 352–53 (applying rational basis review to a constitutional
challenge to an automated traffic enforcement ordinance under the inalienable
rights clause); Midwest Check Cashing, Inc. v. Richey, 728 N.W.2d 396, 403 (Iowa
2007) (rejecting inalienable rights clause challenge to payday loan statute and
equating review to rational basis test, noting the statute “impacts a property
right. But it is far removed from the type of legislation that is arbitrary and
entities over use of a public resource. 890 N.W.2d 50, 71–72 (Iowa 2017). In Dalarna
Farms v. Access Energy Coop., we held an electric utility’s comparative fault defense
would not reduce a potential “takings” award for a dairy farmer’s diminution of value
claim from stray voltage, but we also determined the farmer’s inalienable rights claim
was premature and declined to reach it. 792 N.W.2d 656, 658, 661–64 (Iowa 2010).
None of the issues adjudicated in these three cases required a reaffirmation of Gacke’s
three-part test and none involved a request to overrule it. These decisions remain good
law.
26
unreasonable.”); see also Atwood v. Vilsack, 725 N.W.2d 641, 651–52 (Iowa
2006) (rejecting a challenge to pretrial detention under the Sexually Violent
Predator (SVP) Act, and stating, “Even if the right to bail in civil commitment
proceedings pre-existed the Constitution and consequently falls within the ambit
of the protections afforded by the unenumerated rights and inalienable rights
clauses, the SVP statute is reasonable and, thus, constitutional.”); Todd E.
Pettys, The Iowa State Constitution 68 (2d ed. 2018) (“Because the standard of
review under Section 1 is highly deferential to government actors, it is far easier
to find cases in which Iowa courts have rejected inalienable-rights claims.”).
We also note that before Gacke, we consistently applied a highly deferential
review in rejecting inalienable rights clause challenges to legislation. See, e.g.,
Bennett v. Guthridge, 225 N.W.2d 137, 139–40 (Iowa 1975) (“Regulations similar
to the ordinance involved in this case [governing home construction standards]
have long been upheld as valid exercises of the police power.”); Diamond Auto
Sales, Inc. v. Erbe, 105 N.W.2d 650, 651, 653 (Iowa 1960) (upholding a Sunday
closing law for car dealers because it was “not an arbitrary and unreasonable
regulation of plaintiffs’ businesses”). Gacke is an aberration.
As we observed in Jacobsma, “[s]ome states with inalienable rights clauses
similar to Iowa’s have found them to be merely hortatory,”7 while “[s]ome courts,
7See, e.g., Kunkel v. Walton, 689 N.E.2d 1047, 1056–57 (Ill. 1997) (concluding that its
inherent and inalienable rights clause does not provide judicially enforceable rights because it
“is not generally considered, of itself, an operative constitutional limitation upon the exercise of
governmental powers” (quoting George D. Braden & Rubin Goodman Cohn, The Illinois
Constitution: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis 8 (1969))); Morris v. Brandenburg, 376 P.3d
836, 855 (N.M. 2016) (“[T]he Inherent Rights Clause has never been interpreted to be the
27
however, have held that inalienable rights clauses in state constitutions are
judicially enforceable in a variety of contexts.” 862 N.W.2d at 350; see
Marshall J. Ray, What Does the Natural Rights Clause Mean to New Mexico?, 39
N.M. L. Rev. 375, 399–406 (2009) (reviewing the justifications for and against
New Mexico’s natural rights clause as a source of judicially enforceable
substantive rights).
We concluded in Jacobsma that Iowa’s inalienable rights clause must have
“at least some constitutional bite.” 862 N.W.2d at 351. We equated review under
that clause to our rational basis test:
Where liberty or property rights are allegedly infringed by a
statute or ordinance, our inalienable rights cases have held that,
even if the plaintiff’s asserted interest is within the scope of the
inalienable rights clause, the rights guaranteed by the provision are
subject to reasonable regulation by the state in the exercise of its
police power. This formulation, of course, is virtually identical to the
rational-basis due process test or equal protection tests under the
Federal Constitution.
Id. at 352 (citations omitted). We reached the same conclusion in Gray. 943
N.W.2d at 629–32 (reviewing constitutional challenges under the due process
and inalienable rights clauses together under a rational basis review). And most
notably, we recently applied rational basis review to reject an inalienable rights
clause challenge to the statutory immunity for negligent inspections by workers’
compensation insurers in Iowa Code section 517.5. Clark, 927 N.W.2d at 190–
91.
exclusive source for a fundamental or important constitutional right, and on its own has always
been subject to reasonable regulation.”).
28
CAFOs are controversial, but it is not our role to second-guess the
legislature’s policy choices. See AFSCME Iowa Council 61 v. State, 928 N.W.2d
21, 26 (Iowa 2019) (“Our role is to decide whether constitutional lines were
crossed, not to sit as a superlegislature rethinking policy choices of the elected
branches.”). Shortly after our constitution was ratified in 1857, our court
concluded:
The people, then, have vested the legislative authority,
inherent in them, in the general assembly.
....
Thus, it seems clear by logical deduction, and upon the most
abundant authority, that this court has no authority to annul an act
of the legislature unless it is found to be in clear, palpable and direct
conflict with the written constitution.
Stewart v. Bd. of Supervisors, 30 Iowa 9, 18–19 (1870); see also Iowa Const.
art. I, § 2 (“All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted
for the protection, security, and benefit of the people, and they have the right, at
all times, to alter or reform the same, whenever the public good may require it.”);
Honomichl, 914 N.W.2d at 240 (Waterman, J., concurring specially) (“The
inalienable rights clause should be read together with the clause that
immediately follows it in the Bill of Rights.”).
We are to give our legislature the deference it is due under the Iowa
Constitution. As we recently reiterated,
[W]e must remember that statutes are cloaked with a presumption
of constitutionality. The challenger bears a heavy burden, because
it must prove the unconstitutionality beyond a reasonable doubt.
Moreover, “the challenger must refute every reasonable basis upon
which the statute could be found to be constitutional.” Furthermore,
if the statute is capable of being construed in more than one
29
manner, one of which is constitutional, we must adopt that
construction.
State v. Kilby, 961 N.W.2d 374, 377 (Iowa 2021) (quoting State v. Senn, 882
N.W.2d 1, 6 (Iowa 2016)). Gacke erred by flouting our traditional deferential
review of legislation affecting tort law and property rights.
As noted, in Ehlebracht, the South Dakota Supreme Court recently
overruled constitutional challenges to a large wind energy farm. 972 N.W.2d at
487–92. The plaintiffs alleged that noise and light flicker from the wind turbines
constituted a nuisance and that the government permits allowing the wind farm
created an easement over their adjacent land. Id. at 484. The Ehlebracht court
rejected their easement theory and described Iowa precedent, particularly
Bormann, as an “outlier.” Id. at 492.8
For all these reasons, we overrule Gacke’s three-part test under the
inalienable rights clause and instead apply rational basis review. Specifically, we
overrule part IV of Gacke,9 as well as the decisions that followed and applied that
test, including Honomichl, 914 N.W.2d 223 (majority opinion). 10
8We caution that an expansive view of Iowa’s inalienable rights clause, as advocated by
our colleagues in the dissent, would jeopardize the development of wind energy in our state. The
problems with the dissents are more fully addressed in Justice Mansfield’s concurrence. The
dissents primarily rely on takings jurisprudence, which leads to cognitive dissonance because
Garrison failed to preserve his takings claim and Gacke itself disavowed a takings remedy for
damages apart from the diminution in value. 684 N.W.2d at 175. The dissents also rely in part
on the due process clause, but Garrison raised no due process challenge to section 657.11(2).
9Because Garrison failed to preserve error on his takings claim, we do not address part II
and III of Gacke.
10The court of appeals, in an unpublished decision, affirmed a district court ruling
applying Gacke in McIlrath v. Prestage Farms of Iowa, L.L.C., No. 15–1599, 2016 WL 6902328, at
*3 (Iowa Ct. App. Nov. 23, 2016). At the time, the court of appeals was bound to apply Gacke. In
light of our holding today overruling Gacke, McIlrath is no longer good law.
30
D. Application of the Rational Basis Test. We now apply the proper
rational basis test to resolve Garrison’s constitutional challenge under the
inalienable rights clause. To adjudicate claims under Iowa’s inalienable rights
clause, when no fundamental right or suspect class is at issue, we apply rational
basis review to decide if there is a reasonable fit between the means used to
advance the government interest and the interest itself. McQuistion v. City of
Clinton, 872 N.W.2d 817, 833 (Iowa 2015).
Statutes are presumed constitutional, and we will not declare something
unconstitutional under the rational basis test unless it “clearly, palpably, and
without doubt infringe[s]” a constitutional right. Residential & Agric. Advisory
Comm., LLC v. Dyersville City Council, 888 N.W.2d 24, 50 (Iowa 2016) (alteration
in original) (quoting Racing Ass’n of Cent. Iowa v. Fitzgerald, 675 N.W.2d 1, 8
(Iowa 2004)). The state “is not required or expected to produce evidence to justify
its legislative action.” Ames Rental Prop. Ass’n v. City of Ames, 736 N.W.2d 255,
259 (Iowa 2007). A court needs only to find a “realistically conceivable” basis for
the statute toward “a legitimate government interest.” Planned Parenthood of the
Heartland, 962 N.W.2d at 48 (quoting AFSCME Iowa Council 61, 928 N.W.2d at
32). And that basis need not be supported by evidence in the traditional sense:
“[A] legislative choice is not subject to courtroom factfinding and
may be based on rational speculation unsupported by evidence or
empirical data.” A statute is presumed constitutional and “[t]he
burden is on the one attacking the legislative arrangement to
negative every conceivable basis which might support it,” whether
or not the basis has a foundation in the record.
Baker v. City of Iowa City, 867 N.W.2d 44, 57 (Iowa 2015) (alterations in original)
(quoting Heller v. Doe by Doe, 509 U.S. 312, 319–21 (1993)).
31
Rational basis review, while not toothless, presents a “very deferential
standard.” AFSCME Iowa Council 61, 928 N.W.2d at 32 (quoting NextEra Energy
Res. LLC v. Iowa Utils. Bd., 815 N.W.2d 30, 46 (Iowa 2012)). The party
challenging the statute “must refute every reasonable basis upon which the
statute could be found to be constitutional.” Hernandez-Lopez, 639 N.W.2d at
233 (quoting State v. Keene, 629 N.W.2d 360, 364 (Iowa 2001)). Garrison cannot
clear this high bar.
Protecting and promoting livestock production is a legitimate state
interest, and granting partial immunity from nuisance suits is a proper means
to that end. We accept at face value the legislature’s statement of purpose for the
immunity provision:
The purpose of this section is to protect animal agricultural
producers who manage their operations according to state and
federal requirements from the costs of defending nuisance suits,
which negatively impact upon Iowa’s competitive economic position
and discourage persons from entering into animal agricultural
production. This section is intended to promote the expansion of
animal agriculture in this state by protecting persons engaged in the
care and feeding of animals. The general assembly has balanced all
competing interests and declares its intent to protect and preserve
animal agricultural production operations.
Iowa Code § 657.11(1).
Section 657.11(2) does not eliminate nuisance recovery rights altogether.
Rather, neighboring property owners can recover for nuisance when the damage
resulted from the CAFO’s failure to comply with a federal or state statute or
regulation, or when the CAFO “unreasonably and for substantial periods of time
interferes” with the plaintiff’s use of their property and the CAFO “failed to use
existing prudent generally accepted management practices reasonable for the
32
operation.” Id. § 657.11(2). And litigants may continue to seek recovery for
diminution in property value under a takings theory. See Gacke, 684 N.W.2d at174–75.
The Missouri Supreme Court under rational basis review upheld the
constitutionality of that state’s right-to-farm law limiting nuisance damages.
Labrayere, 458 S.W.3d at 331–32. The Labrayere court recognized that
promoting farming is a legitimate government interest and reducing nuisance
liability is a proper means to that end:
“It is within the province of the legislature to enact a statute which
regulates the balance of competitive economic forces in the field of
agricultural production and commerce, thereby protecting the
welfare of its citizens comprising the traditional farming community,
and such statute is rationally related to a legitimate state interest.”
Irrespective of the perceived desirability of section 537.296, the
statute rationally advances the legitimate state interest in promoting
the agricultural economy by reducing the litigation risk faced by
Missouri farmers while permitting nearby landowners to recover the
diminution in property value caused by agricultural operations.
Id. (citations omitted). We reach the same conclusion here. Indeed, the amici
observe that liability risk has a chilling effect on the ability of new farmers to
obtain financing. It is within the legislature’s prerogative to lower the costs of
litigation.
Balancing the competing interests of CAFO operators and their neighbors
is a quintessentially legislative function involving policy choices our constitution
places with the elected branches. See Honomichl, 914 N.W.2d at 240
(Waterman, J., concurring specially). “[T]he Constitution presumes that even
improvident decisions will eventually be rectified by the democratic processes.”
33
Sanchez v. State, 692 N.W.2d 812, 817 (Iowa 2005) (quoting City of Cleburne v.
Cleburne Living Ctr., 473 U.S. 432, 440 (1985)).
Common law rights existing in 1857 were not locked in place by the
ratification of Iowa’s inalienable rights clause. To the contrary,
[T]he Supreme Court has stated that a litigant does not have a vested
property right in any rule of the common law. “The Constitution does
not forbid . . . the abolition of old [rights] recognized by the common
law, to attain a permissible legislative object . . . .” Thus, if the
legislature can abolish a cause of action for a legitimate purpose, it
also may prevent a cause of action from arising by enacting a statute
of repose.
Bob McKiness Excavating & Grading, Inc. v. Morton Bldgs., Inc., 507 N.W.2d 405,
410 (Iowa 1993) (omissions and second alteration in original) (citations omitted)
(quoting Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Env’t Study Grp., Inc., 438 U.S. 59, 88 n.32
(1978)). And the legislature is free to enact laws that affect how people use and
enjoy their land. These laws can alter the common law. For example, in
Democko v. Iowa Department of Natural Resources, we held the legislature could
deprive landowners of the common law right to hunt on their property. 840
N.W.2d 281, 293 (Iowa 2013). We noted that “the nub of the issue is whether,
under Iowa law, an Iowa landowner has a property right to hunt on his or her
property. Regardless of what might have been at common law, we conclude the
legislature has extinguished any such right.” Id.; see also Pure Air & Water, 668
N.Y.S.2d at 249–50 (rejecting challenge to New York’s right-to-farm statute that
eliminated private nuisance claims because “a person does not have a vested
interest in any rule of the common law”). The common law is not frozen and it
34
can be modified by the legislature so long as the legislation passes the rational
basis test and does not amount to a taking without just compensation.
We have applied rational basis review to reject an inalienable rights clause
challenge to the statutory immunity in Iowa Code section 517.5 for negligent
inspections by workers’ compensation insurers that led to an employee’s injury.
Clark, 927 N.W.2d at 190–91. We noted that “there has been no absolute
elimination of a right of recovery for on-the-job injuries, but only a reasonable
regulation of it.” Id. at 191. Similarly, the legislature did not absolutely eliminate
nuisance claims against CAFOs in section 657.11(2), but only imposed
reasonable limitations on recovery rights.
We hold section 657.11 survives rational basis review. On that ground, we
affirm the district court’s denial of Garrison’s motion to strike the defendants’
affirmative defenses based on that statutory immunity.
E. Whether the District Court Correctly Granted Summary Judgment.
“Summary judgment ‘is not a dress rehearsal or practice run’ for trial but rather
‘the put up or shut up moment in a lawsuit, when a [nonmoving] party must
show what evidence it has that would convince a trier of fact to accept its version
of the events.’ ” Buboltz v. Birusingh, 962 N.W.2d 747, 754–55 (Iowa 2021)
(alteration in original) (quoting Slaughter v. Des Moines Univ. Coll. of Osteopathic
Med., 925 N.W.2d 793, 808 (Iowa 2019)). The district court granted the
defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing Garrison’s nuisance,
trespass, and drainage claims. The court determined that Garrison lacked
evidence to support any exception to the defendants’ immunity from nuisance
35
liability in section 657.11(2). The court further determined that Garrison lacked
evidence to prove causation for his remaining claims. Garrison largely relied on
the same evidence for both his trespass and drainage claims, and we will address
those claims together.
1. Nuisance for loss of use and enjoyment. The statutory immunity does
not apply if “[t]he animal feeding operation unreasonably and for substantial
periods of time interferes with the person’s comfortable use and enjoyment of the
person’s life or property” and “[t]he animal feeding operation failed to use existing
prudent generally accepted management practices reasonable for the operation.”
Iowa Code § 657.11(2)(b).11 Garrison lacked evidence to establish an exception
to the statutory immunity. See id.Garrison contends the defendants should have planted more trees and
extended the electrostatic fence around the entire confinement building. But the
electrostatic fence was state-of-the-art and the defendants used fans to reduce
the odor. Garrison’s experts Streit and Kassel based their opinions on what
would be appropriate for an optimum crop yield, not what is necessary for
responsible manure management to avoid harm to neighboring land. Garrison
lacked any evidence on generally accepted practices in the field of manure
management for hog farms or animal feeding operations generally. The district
11As noted, the statutory immunity can be overcome if the plaintiff shows the defendants
failed “to comply with a federal statute or regulation or a state statute or rule which applies to
the animal feeding operation.” Iowa Code § 657.11(2)(a). On appeal, Garrison does not argue this
exception applies.
36
court summarized the record establishing Garrison’s lack of evidence to generate
a genuine issue of material fact:
Plaintiff has no witnesses, expert or otherwise, to testify as to
the prudence or general acceptance of any farm management
practices. Plaintiff has no witnesses, expert or otherwise, to testify
as to the prudence or general acceptance of the electrostatic fence.
Plaintiff has no witnesses, expert or otherwise, to set a standard as
to existing generally accepted management practices. In addition,
Plaintiff has failed to identify any alternative technologies and
approaches that would be considered “existing prudent generally
accepted management practices.” Plaintiff has identified no evidence
that Defendants departed from any standard industry practices.
Plaintiff therefore cannot meet his burden of proving that
Defendants “failed to use existing prudent generally accepted
management practices reasonable for the operation.” Without such
evidence, Plaintiff cannot claim the statutory exception under
section 657.11(2)(b) as a matter of law.
We agree. The district court correctly ruled that Garrison lacked any evidence
that the defendants failed “to use existing prudent generally accepted
management practices reasonable for [their] operation.” Iowa Code
§ 657.11(2)(b)(2). “Summary judgment is an important procedure in statutory
immunity cases because a key purpose of the immunity is to avoid costly
litigation, and that legislative goal is thwarted when claims subject to immunity
proceed to trial.” Nelson v. Lindaman, 867 N.W.2d 1, 7 (Iowa 2015). The
defendants were entitled to summary judgment on nuisance as a matter of law.
2. Trespass and drainage. Garrison argues the defendants over-applied
manure to BWT’s field and caused excess nitrate to be discharged. The
defendants moved for summary judgment arguing Garrison lacked evidence to
prove their actions caused any damage. “On appeal, we consider the evidence
37
before the court at the summary judgment stage, not other or additional evidence
that might have been introduced later in the case.” Buboltz, 962 N.W.2d at 754.
“The gist of a claim for trespass on land is the wrongful interference with
one’s possessory rights in property.” Robert’s River Rides, Inc. v. Steamboat Dev.
Corp., 520 N.W.2d 294, 301 (Iowa 1994), abrogated on other grounds by
Barreca v. Nickolas, 683 N.W.2d 111 (Iowa 2004). And for drainage, “[t]he general
rule is that the dominant owner is entitled to drain surface water in a natural
watercourse from his land over the servient owner’s land and if any damage
results the servient owner is without remedy.” O’Tool v. Hathaway, 461 N.W.2d
161, 163 (Iowa 1990) (quoting Rosendahl Levy v. Iowa State Highway Comm’n,
171 N.W.2d 530, 536 (Iowa 1969)). The “corollary to the foregoing rule is ‘an
overriding requirement that one must exercise ordinary care in the use of his
property so as not to injure the rights of neighboring landowners.’ ” Id. (quoting
Oak Leaf Country Club, Inc. v. Wilson, 257 N.W.2d 739, 745 (Iowa 1977)). Thus,
the dominant owner is liable “if (1) the manner or method of drainage is
substantially changed and (2) actual damage results.” Id.The district court correctly granted summary judgment based on
Garrison’s lack of evidence on causation. “Generally questions of negligence,
contributory negligence, and proximate cause are for the jury; it is only in
exceptional cases that they may be decided as matters of law.” Iowa R. App. P.
6.904(3)(j). The court determined that Garrison lacked evidence to prove
causation:
38
Plaintiff has yet to provide any analysis as to how the results of the
water tests establish any violation on the part of Defendants. No
expert has been disclosed give an opinion as to what the results of
the water tests mean. Plaintiff has offered no expert evidence as to
how any resulting inference can be correlated or attributed to
Defendants. The water test results do not create a genuine issue of
material fact on any issue. This is a subject that is beyond the
ordinary intelligence of a layperson and must be supported by expert
testimony . . . .
We agree. Garrison’s failure to present expert testimony is fatal.
The defendants’ properly supported motion for summary judgment
required Garrison to “set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue
for trial.” Iowa R. Civ. P. 1.981(5). He failed to do so. See Buboltz, 962 N.W.2d at
754–55 (noting summary judgment requires the nonmovant to “put up or shut
up” (quoting Slaughter, 925 N.W.2d at 808)). Garrison lacked evidence showing
the defendants’ actions caused any recoverable damage to his property.12
Without accompanying expert testimony, his water tests do not show an increase
in nitrate levels nor a spike in nitrate levels that would correlate with manure
spreading. And even assuming an increase in nitrate levels, Garrison lacked
expert testimony to attribute or correlate any increase in nitrate levels in the
stream to the defendants’ actions.
We agree with the district court that “[w]ithout expert testimony tying
Defendants’ alleged misapplication or over-application of manure to the nitrate
levels in the Plaintiff’s stream, Plaintiff cannot, as a matter of law, meet his
burden of proving that any trespass or drainage violation proximately caused
12Garrisondid not argue in his resistance to the motion for summary judgment and does
not argue on appeal that the 2018 consent order proves the defendant’s conduct proximately
caused harm to his property.
39
any damage to the Plaintiff.” Further, the record contains no evidence showing
Garrison’s property was damaged by any increased drainage or by any excess
nitrate in the water flowing through his property. The defendants were entitled
to summary judgment on this record.13
IV. Conclusion.
For these reasons, we affirm the district court’s summary judgment
dismissing Garrison’s action with prejudice.
AFFIRMED.
Christensen, C.J., and Mansfield and McDermott, JJ., join this opinion.
Mansfield, J., files a concurring opinion, in which Waterman, J., joins. Appel, J.,
files a dissenting opinion, in which Oxley, J., joins. McDonald, J., files a
dissenting opinion, in which Oxley, J., joins.
13Garrison met the same fate in federal court, where his claims against these defendants
alleging ongoing violations of federal law were dismissed on summary judgment due to his lack
of expert testimony to prove causation. Garrison, 449 F. Supp. 3d at 873–74. Given the
differences between the applicable state and federal laws, we do not apply or rely on issue
preclusion to affirm the Iowa district court judgment.
40
#21–0652, Garrison v. New Fashion Pork LLP
MANSFIELD, Justice (concurring).
I join the majority opinion. I write separately to respond to the dissents. It
needs to be reiterated at the outset that Gordon Garrison did not preserve an
argument against the statutory nuisance immunity under the Bormann-takings
branch of our jurisprudence. His only timely argument was that the immunity
should be set aside under the Gacke-inalienable-rights branch.
There is a crucial distinction between property and common law rules. The
government can never take property without providing just compensation (and
then only for a public use). However, the legislature is generally free to modify
common law rules. Gacke v. Pork Xtra, L.L.C. undermined this important
distinction by creating a sort of no-man’s land between the two—a common law
cause of action for noneconomic nuisance damages that wasn’t property, but
could only be regulated by the legislature subject to a newly minted three-part
test. And to get to this result, Gacke deployed the very generally worded and
aspirational inalienable-rights clause, a clause that could be invoked for
practically any purpose by a court in search of previously undiscovered rights.
The dissents, if anything, undermine this important distinction between
property and the common law even further.
I. The Iowa Constitution Does Not Freeze the Common Law.
I begin by assuming that in 1857 there was a common law cause of action
for noneconomic nuisance damages. However, the common law as it existed in
1857 does not have special constitutional status just because it is the common
41
law. “A fundamental assumption of Anglo-American law is that legislatures may
alter common-law rules.” Stephen A. Siegel, Lochner Era Jurisprudence and the
American Constitutional Tradition, 70 N.C. L. Rev. 1, 65 n.339 (1991); see id. at
65 (“The common law traditionally was subject to legislative control.”). “[T]here
was broad agreement that Parliament had the ability to displace common law
through statutes.” Carissa Byrne Hessick, The Myth of Common Law Crimes, 105
Va. L. Rev. 965, 1009 n.212 (2019). “Where the common law and a statute differ,
the common law gives place to the statute . . . .” 1 William Blackstone,
Commentaries *89.
Consider what would happen if the Iowa Constitution froze the 1857
common law for all time. If so, we’d still have a cause of action for alienation of
affections. Private employees would not be able to sue private employers for
discrimination. Trade unions would be illegal restraints of trade. Comparative
fault would not exist. The law could not require plaintiffs who recover punitive
damages to turn over part of their recovery to the state. Simply put, it is the
legislature’s prerogative to pass laws that change the common law.
II. Gacke Misapplied Article I, Section 1 to Restrict Legislative
Authority to Modify the Common Law Even Though No Property Right Was
Being Taken and the Legislation Met a Rational Basis Test.
In Bormann v. Board of Supervisors, we held that an Iowa nuisance
immunity law—which granted property owners immunity from nuisance suits
under certain conditions—provided the benefited owners with “easements” over
their neighbors’ property and amounted to an unconstitutional “taking” of
42
property under article I, section 18 of the Iowa Constitution. 584 N.W.2d 309,
315–22 (Iowa 1998) (en banc).
However, in Gacke, 684 N.W.2d 168 (Iowa 2004), we qualified Bormann.
We held that a nuisance immunity law resulted in a taking only to the extent
that it prevented neighboring landowners from recovering diminution-in-value
damages. Id. at 175. That is because paying diminution in value is the standard
of compensation for taking an easement. Id. at 174–75. So, the initial lesson of
Gacke is that any property right protected by article I, section 18 is limited to
diminution-of-value damages. That’s where constitutionally protected “property”
ends. See id. at 175 (“Because the recovery of diminution-in-value damages fully
compensates the burdened property owners for the unlawful taking of an
easement, the restrictions of the Takings Clause end at that point. The Takings
Clause does not prohibit limitations on other damages recoverable under a
nuisance theory.”)
But we didn’t stop there. We said in Gacke that restrictions on suits for
noneconomic damages may come into collision with article I, section 1 of the
Iowa Constitution, even though they don’t amount to a taking of property. Id. at
175–78. This, in my view, is where we went astray.
Article I, section 1 is essentially a paraphrase of some of the stirring
language of our Declaration of Independence. It reads as follows:
All men and women are, by nature, free and equal, and have
certain inalienable rights—among which are those of enjoying and
defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting
property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.
Iowa Const. art. I, § 1.
43
Article I, section 1 needs to be read along with article I, section 2, which
also paraphrases some of the stirring prose of the Declaration of Independence.
Article I, section 2 reads as follows:
All political power is inherent in the people. Government is
instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people, and
they have the right, at all times, to alter or reform the same,
whenever the public good may require it.
Id. art. I, § 2.
Neither of these provisions can possibly be read literally. Do I have a right
under section 1 to “obtain[] . . . happiness” from the State of Iowa? Id. art. I, § 1.
If so, I’d like to sue for specific performance.
Nor can section 2 be read literally as allowing the people to march on our
State Capitol and overthrow our government “whenever the public good may
require it.” Id. art. I, § 2.
Moreover, we already have language in article I, sections 9 and 18
expressly limiting the state’s ability to interfere with life, liberty, and property.
See id. art. I, §§ 9 (“[N]o person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law.”), 18 (“Private property shall not be taken for public
use without just compensation first being made . . . .”). It would be illogical to
conclude that the general and aspirational statement of rights in article I, section
1 could trump—or be used to alter the effect of—the more direct and specific
language in article I, sections 9 and 18.
Unlike article I, section 1, the meat-and-potatoes provisions of our Bill of
Rights have operational rather than just aspirational language. See, e.g., id. art.
I, §§ 6 (“[T]he general assembly shall not grant . . . .”), 7 (“No law shall be passed
44
. . . .”), 8 (“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers
and effects, against unreasonable seizures and searches shall not be violated
. . . .”), 9 (“[N]o person shall be deprived . . . .”), 10 (“In all criminal prosecutions,
and in cases involving the life, or liberty of an individual the accused shall have
a right . . . .”), 18 (“Private property shall not be taken for public use . . . .”).
Notably, once you get past article I, sections 1 and 2, all but one of the twenty-
two enumerated rights contain the word “shall.” See id. art. I, §§ 3–4, 6–19, 21–
25.14
In plain recognition of these points, we’ve historically viewed article I,
section 1 as simply incorporating a rational basis test. Or to be perhaps more
precise, we have viewed article I, section 1 as not adding anything to the more
specific constitutional guarantees elsewhere in the Iowa Bill of Rights.
Thus, in Gacke we reviewed prior caselaw under article I, section 1, which
with one ninety-year-old exception had never sustained an article I, section 1
challenge. 684 N.W.2d at 175–77; see State v. Osborne, 154 N.W. 294 (Iowa
1915).15 Gacke noted that under prior article I, section 1 caselaw, a “highly
14Article
I, section 5 of the Iowa Constitution regarding dueling was repealed in 1992. It,
too, included “shall.” See Iowa Const. art. I, § 5.
15Justice Appel’s dissent argues that Coger v. Northwestern Union Packet Co., 37 Iowa 145(1873), found article I, section 1 to be judicially enforceable. I think the situation is more
complicated than his dissent lets on. Coger involved discrimination by a private entity—a
common carrier—that refused to allow a person of color to travel in the first-class
accommodations for which she had purchased a ticket. Id. at 147–48. Our court upheld the jury
verdict in her favor, citing several sources of authority. Id. at 153–60. One was undoubtedly the
“principle of equality” set forth in article I, section 1. Id. at 153. But we went on to cite other
authority, including perhaps most importantly the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1866, which gave
all persons regardless of race and color “the same right in every State and Territory in the United
States, to make and enforce contracts.” Id. at 156.
45
deferential standard of review” applied and the legislature could pass laws so
long as they were not “unduly oppressive.” Id. at 177 (quoting Gravert v.
Nebergall, 539 N.W.2d 184, 186 (Iowa 1995)). Essentially, pre-Gacke, we had
applied rational basis review under article I, section 1. See, e.g., Gravert, 539
N.W.2d at 186 (“Laws enacted by the exercise of a state's police power are
presumed to be constitutional provided there is some reasonable relation to the
public welfare, and one challenging the validity of such laws can rebut this
presumption only by negating every reasonable basis upon which the laws may
be sustained.”); Gibb v. Hansen, 286 N.W.2d 180, 186 (Iowa 1979) (“[L]iberty
implies the absence of arbitrary restraint, not immunity from reasonable
regulations and prohibitions imposed in the interests of the community.”
(quoting Benschoter v. Hakes, 8 N.W.2d 481, 486 (Iowa 1943))); Steinberg–Baum
& Co. v. Countryman, 77 N.W.2d 15, 20 (Iowa 1956) (“That a law may be severe,
drastic or work hardship does not render it unconstitutional in the respect
claimed.”). And, as the majority persuasively demonstrates, post-Gacke we have
applied rational basis review.
Yet we did not apply rational basis review in Gacke. Instead, we decided
that the nuisance immunity for noneconomic damages would be “unduly
oppressive” and a violation of article I, section 1 when three conditions were met.
Gacke, 684 N.W.2d at 178. First, the neighboring landowner “receive[s] no
particular benefit from the nuisance immunity granted to their neighbors other
than that inuring to the public in general.” Id. Second, the neighboring
landowner “sustain[s] significant hardship.” Id. And third, the neighboring
46
landowner “resided on their property long before any animal operation was
commenced.” Id.This three-part test is something that a philosopher king might devise.
And if I were the philosopher king of Iowa, I might agree that we should subject
nuisance immunities for animal feeding operations to this three-part test. But
this test bears no resemblance to rational basis review. Under rational basis
review, a law is sustained if it is rationally related to a legitimate state interest.
E.g., State v. Doe, 927 N.W.2d 656, 662–63 (Iowa 2019). No one can dispute that
the promotion of animal agriculture is a legitimate state interest and that
immunizing animal feeding operations from litigation if they meet certain
benchmarks is rationally related to that end. Iowa Code section 657.11 (2020)
satisfies a rational basis test.
To sum up, Gacke’s inalienable-rights analysis came out of nowhere and
has no limiting principle. Both dissents therefore try to defend Gacke largely by
repackaging Gacke as something it wasn’t.
III. Justice Appel’s Dissent Tries to Save Gacke by Finding Precedent
Where It Isn’t and Property Where It Isn’t.
Justice Appel defends the Gacke test on the ground that there needs to be
some test whenever there is an open-ended constitutional provision. But that’s
not necessarily true. If the provision is in the form of a command—e.g., “no
person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”—
then clearly there needs to be a test to implement that command. Iowa Const.
art. I, sec. 9. But if the provision is a general statement of principles like article
I, section 1, then why does there have to be a test at all? If there is going to be a
47
test, it should not be more restrictive than the test that would otherwise be
applied under other, more specific constitutional provisions.
Even the considerable scholarly talents of Justice Appel cannot uncover a
plausible precedent for Gacke. Justice Appel says the three-part test “seems to
have originated” in Lawton v. Steele, 152 U.S. 133 (1894). I doubt it. The Lawton
opinion uses the phrase “unduly oppressive” but there is no three-part test. Id.
at 137. The case involved government seizure and destruction of certain nets
used for illegal fishing. Id. at 139. The United States Supreme Court upheld the
government’s actions. Id. at 143.
Under Gacke, a person can get a law declared unconstitutional that
wouldn’t otherwise be unconstitutional because they received “no particular
benefit . . . other than that inuring to the public in general.” 684 N.W.2d at 178.
If we took the Gacke test and started applying it across the board, this would
dramatically shift power from the legislative to the judicial branch. Everyone can
find some law or regulation that works a hardship on them while providing “no
particular benefit” to them.
Justice Appel also errs when he asserts that this case presents the
following question: “Can the government, consistent with article I, section 1 of
the Iowa Constitution, enact a statute that authorizes a landowner to appropriate
or take for the landowner’s benefit the property interest of a neighboring
landowner, without any compensation or benefit to the other owner?” Property
rights are not at issue in this case because no one is challenging a property
owner’s ability to recover diminution-of-value damages in a case wherein a
48
takings claim is preserved. This case involves only a common law right that was
afforded special constitutional protection in Gacke.
IV. Justice McDonald’s Dissent Tries to Save Gacke by Altering What
Gacke Actually Held.
Justice McDonald’s dissent is more difficult to pin down. At the beginning
and at the end of his dissent, Justice McDonald gives prominence to the text of
article I, section 1, as if to indicate that the section has some independent legal
force. But in between he acknowledges that article I, section 1 only imposes a
rational basis test—the same test that we would apply to legislation like Iowa
Code section 657.11 even if there were no article I, section 1.
However, Justice McDonald then says that section 657.11 fails a rational
basis test. Why? Because it takes away property. Except we said otherwise in
Gacke. We held it did not amount to a taking when the legislature limited the
right to sue for noneconomic damages. See Gacke, 684 N.W.2d at 175 (“The
Takings Clause does not prohibit limitations on other damages recoverable
under a nuisance theory.”).
As Gacke recognized, not every “stick” in the property owner’s traditional
“bundle” is beyond the power of the government to regulate. For example, one of
the classic sticks associated with property ownership is the right to build on
property. Yet, for the greater good of the community, the government can limit
what property owners build on their property, and we subject those building
codes and zoning laws to a rational basis test. See, e.g., Residential & Agric.
Advisory Comm., LLC v. Dyersville City Council, 888 N.W.2d 24, 49 (Iowa 2016)
(“Zoning and land use ordinances that do not impact a suspect classification
49
must only meet the rational relationship test.”). So too the government can
regulate nuisance claims brought by one property owner against another, so long
as the government is not actually taking away property or acting arbitrarily and
irrationally.
As I’ve already noted, there is a crucial distinction between property itself,
which the government cannot take without compensation, and common law
rules, which the government can generally modify. Justice McDonald erodes that
distinction entirely, and would go well beyond Gacke. He would replace Gacke’s
three-part test with a blanket rule that any limit on recovery of noneconomic
damages for nuisance is per se unconstitutional. That doesn’t sound anything
like a rational basis test, and it isn’t.
Another giveaway that Justice McDonald is not applying a rational basis
test is his assertion that “[t]he damage, degradation, and destruction caused by
industrial animal feeding operations [are] well-documented.” This sounds like
the dissent is expressing its views on a policy matter rather than applying the
rational basis test. Our state is one of the nation’s leading food producers. See
Iowa Const. art. IX, 2nd, § 3 (“The general assembly shall encourage, by all
suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural
improvement.”). There is a tradeoff between food production and environmental
protection. Maximizing food production can adversely impact the environment.
Maximizing environmental protection can increase the costs of producing food
and thus increase food prices. Not everyone can afford to buy a steak—or even a
hamburger.
50
The legislature has chosen to balance the two goals of promoting
agriculture and protecting the environment by providing that the legislative
nuisance immunity
shall not apply if the person bringing the action proves that an injury
to the person or damage to the person's property is proximately
caused by either of the following:
a. The failure to comply with a federal statute or regulation or
a state statute or rule which applies to the animal feeding operation.
b. Both of the following:
(1) The animal feeding operation unreasonably and for
substantial periods of time interferes with the person’s comfortable
use and enjoyment of the person's life or property.
(2) The animal feeding operation failed to use existing prudent
generally accepted management practices reasonable for the
operation.
Iowa Code § 657.11(2). In other words, the plaintiff has to prove either
noncompliance with a rule or statute or a failure to use generally accepted
practices resulting in an unreasonable interference for substantial periods of
time. This is the kind of policy tradeoff the legislature gets to make unless the
government is actually taking property, which under Gacke it isn’t.16
Whatever one may think of Iowa Code section 657.11, it is not being
described accurately by Justice McDonald’s dissent. Justice McDonald asserts,
16Some time ago, our court said,
It was most effectively demonstrated during the depression of the early nineteen
thirties that the well-being of the state as a whole is directly dependent upon the
welfare of agriculture. The prosperity of our basic industry was no less vital when
this act was passed nor is it less vital now when many other countries look to us
for food and agriculture must supply their needs.
Dickinson v. Porter, 35 N.W.2d 66, 76 (Iowa 1948).
51
“The Iowa statute wholly deprives a property owner of the right to assert a private
nuisance action and seek full compensation.” That is not correct. The Iowa
statute has exceptions, as just noted.
Near the end of his dissent, Justice McDonald quotes an earlier dissenter
on our court, who said, “[T]he end of police power is reached when the rights of
others have been protected, and when rights are cut down in order that others
may profit thereby, the limit of police power has been exceeded . . . .” Des Moines
Joint Stock Land Bank of Des Moines v. Nordholm, 253 N.W. 701, 727–28 (Iowa
1934) (Claussen, C.J., dissenting). But like the text of article I, section 1 itself,
this quotation doesn’t help you decide a specific case. It begs the question of
what the “right” is, and whether it is subject to reasonable regulation.
A final point worth noting is that the two dissents don’t agree on what to
do about Gacke. Justice Appel would keep the three-part test; Justice McDonald
would go beyond Gacke and get rid of the three-part test altogether.
In summary, both dissents try to shore up Gacke, but they both end up at
sea. Gacke should be overruled.
Waterman, J., joins this concurrence.
52
#21–0652, Garrison v. New Fashion Park LLP
APPEL, Justice (dissenting).
The first article in the Iowa Constitution is the Iowa Bill of Rights, and the
first section of the first article is what has been called the inalienable rights or
the natural rights clause. Iowa Const. art. I, § 1 (“All men and women are, by
nature, free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights—among which are
those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and
protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness.”). The
positioning of the Iowa Bill of Rights in the very first article of the Iowa
Constitution was not happenstance—it was deliberate. Hoover v. Iowa State
Highway Comm’n, 222 N.W. 438, 439 (Iowa 1928) (“Appearing . . . at the very
threshold of the Iowa Bill of Rights, [article I, section 1’s] constitutional safeguard
is thereby emphasized and shown to be paramount.”); see State v. Baldon, 829
N.W.2d 785, 809–10 (Iowa 2013) (Appel, J., specially concurring) (noting the
priority placement of the Iowa Bill of Rights shows that the Iowa Constitution
“emphasizes rights over mechanics” (quoting Donald P. Racheter, The Iowa
Constitution: Right over Mechanics, in The Constitutionalism of American States
479, 479 (George E. Connor & Christopher W. Hammons eds., 2008))). And the
placement of the inalienable rights or natural rights clause as the first section of
the first article was also intentional. See Bruce Kempkes, The Natural Rights
Clause of the Iowa Constitution: When the Law Sits Too Tight, 42 Drake L. Rev.
593, 631 (1993) (noting the drafter’s placement of the clause at the very
beginning of the constitution strongly supports the argument that article I,
53
section 1 should be given “substantive meaning”). The Committee on the Bill of
Rights at the Iowa Constitutional Convention of 1857 desired to have “the best
and most clearly defined Bill of Rights.” 1 The Debates of the Constitutional
Convention of the State of Iowa 100 (W. Blair Lord rep., 1857),
http://publications.iowa.gov/7313/1/The_Debates_of_the_Constitutional_Con
vention_Vol%231.pdf [hereinafter The Debates]. The Committee aimed “to make
the Bill of Rights as full and perfect as possible.” Id. at 102. The goal, the
committee declared, “is to protect every man in the enjoyment of the largest
liberty consistent with his duties to civil government.” Id.; see also State v.
Tucker, 959 N.W.2d 140, 158–59 (Iowa 2021) (Appel, J., concurring specially)
(discussing the history and importance of article I, section 1 of the Iowa
Constitution). We must never forget that the Iowa founders presented a rights-
based constitution to the voters of Iowa. And the rights provided by the Iowa
Constitution are superior and above the vicissitudes of politics.
The very purpose of a bill of rights and the inalienable rights clause is to
ensure that individual liberties are not subject to erosion by an aggressive
legislative or executive branch. George W. Ells, the chair of the committee
drafting Iowa’s Bill of Rights, insisted that the safeguard of the Iowa Bill of Rights
was fundamental, and it was intended “to place the proper restrictions upon the
powers of the Legislature.” The Debates, at 168. The founders were well aware of
the capability of special interests to dominate the halls of government. That is
why, for example, the Iowa founders put sharp restrictions on the passing out of
privileges and immunities, limits on advancing the credit of the state
54
government, and prohibitions on the state paying the debt of corporations. See
Iowa Const. art. I, § 6; id. art. VII, § 1; id. art. VIII, § 3. Otherwise, special
interests could dominate the political branches for their own benefit and not the
public interest. In other words, it sets to establish that the inalienable rights of
Iowans simply cannot be trampled upon by majority action.
Nothing in section 2 of the Iowa Bill of Rights undercuts the rights
established in the inalienable rights clause. Section 2 states that political power
is vested in the people of Iowa. Clearly, the people of Iowa are not the same as
the people in the legislature. The people of Iowa are the citizens or, more
precisely, the voters. And, unlike ordinary legislative enactments, the provisions
of the Iowa Bill of Rights have been approved by the people. When the court
enforces the terms of the Iowa Bill of Rights, the court is not subverting the will
of the people but actually enforcing it. See Timothy Sandefur, The Conscience of
the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty 120–22
(2014) (noting that the current trend prioritizing democracy over liberty and
encouraging courts to defer to lawmakers is a misunderstanding of the Federal
Constitution and its principles). The Iowa Bill of Rights is a shield that protects
the people’s rights from the political process. Id. at 94–119 (establishing that
courts have a duty to protect the individual rights against the majoritarian action
of the legislature and that to enforce the constitutional guarantees for individual
rights, governments should not have the unbounded power to act in the name of
public good). The Iowa Bill of Rights cannot be stood on its head and made into
a facilitator of legislative domination when its purpose was precisely the opposite.
55
Plainly, article I, section 1 was designed to be enforced by the judiciary. Hoover,
222 N.W. at 439 (“These provisions for the security of the rights of the citizen
stand in the Constitution in the same connection and upon the same ground as
they regard his liberty and his property. It cannot be denied that both were
intended to be enforced by the judiciary as one of the departments of the
government established by that Constitution.” (quoting United States v. Lee, 106
U.S. 196, 220 (1882))).
In a parliamentary form of government, the legislature can both enact
ordinary legislation and determine what is constitutional and what is not. That,
of course, is the system rejected in the American Revolution. And the
parliamentary system with legislative dominance was firmly rejected when the
Iowa constitutional convention proposed—and the citizens of Iowa approved—
the Iowa Bill of Rights.
I now consider the central issue in this case: Can the government,
consistent with article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution, enact a statute that
authorizes a landowner to appropriate or take for the landowner’s benefit the
property interest of a neighboring landowner, without any compensation or
benefit to the other owner? Or, put more simply, can a statute permit a private
entity to take property from other people without any benefit to the property
owner? Or, more particularly, can the legislature give a ticket to a large business
to come to a rural neighborhood, build a huge animal confinement facility that
creates a common law nuisance through fetid odor, without risk of being sued
for damages by long-time residential property owners whose right to enjoyment
56
of their property has been impaired or destroyed? Or, more rhetorically, can we
chalk up the nuisance harms in this case that impair the enjoyment of
neighboring property as a legislatively required contribution to the private good
of the owners of the hog facility? In other words, are we telling the existing
property owners that they are required to “take one for the team” as the private
owners next door emit nuisance odors under a scheme of statutory immunity?
I now turn to the contents of article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution,
which provides: “All men and women are, by nature, free and equal, and have
certain inalienable rights—among which are those of enjoying and defending life
and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and
obtaining safety and happiness.” The provision opens by declaring that all men
and women are, “by nature,” free and equal. Id. And it references “inalienable”
rights, which government cannot take away, “among which” are those of
“acquiring, possessing and protecting property.” Id.Notably, a provision of this kind is completely absent from the United
States Constitution. Some might argue that the inalienable rights clause,
reminiscent of the Virginia Bill of Rights and its derivative Declaration of
Independence, is not part of the law. See Va. Const. art. I, § 1. According to
Justice Scalia, the concepts in a declaration of rights provision “is not a legal
prescription conferring powers upon the courts.” Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57,
91–92 (2000) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (acknowledging, however, that in his view, a
right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is among the
“unalienable Rights” referred to in the Declaration of Independence, as well as
57
being one of the “othe[r] [rights] retained by the people” under the Ninth
Amendment to the United States Constitution (alterations in original) (first
quoting The Declaration of Independence para. 2 (U.S. 1776); then quoting U.S.
Const. amend. IX)).
But article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution is a legal prescription
conferring powers upon the courts. We said so early on in Coger v. North Western
Union Packet Co., where the equality provision in article I, section 1 was cited:
“This principle of equality is announced and secured by the very first words of
our State constitution which relate to the rights of the people, in language most
comprehensive, and incapable of misconstruction, namely: ‘All men are, by
nature, free and equal.’ ” 37 Iowa 149, 154–55 (1873) (quoting Iowa Const. art. I,
§ 1). Relying on article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution, the Coger court
declared, “The doctrines of natural law . . . forbid that rights be denied on the
ground of race or color; and this principle has become incorporated into the
paramount law of the Union.” Id. at 154. “Upon it we rest our conclusion in this
case.” Id. at 155. Any attempt to render article I, section 1 of the Iowa
Constitution meaningless is inconsistent with the forceful holding in Coger.
Decided twenty-three years before the tragic United States Supreme Court
case of Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), overruled by Brown v. Board of
Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), Coger is a great and heroic case, one that
belongs in the pantheon of Iowa judicial accomplishments. So, the equal rights
provision of article I, section 1 is a strong and judicially enforceable provision, a
lesson that should not be lost on the current generation of lawyers and judges.
58
If the equality provision of article I, section 1 is strong and judicially enforceable,
why wouldn’t its protections of life and property of individuals be strong and
judicially enforceable?
In Gacke v. Pork Xtra, L.L.C., we considered the application of article I,
section 1 in a context similar to that presented by this case. See 684 N.W.2d
168, 175–77 (Iowa 2004). In that case, residential property owners brought a
nuisance action against the operator of a hog confinement facility. Id. at 171.
Under section 657.11(2), the hog confinement operator was granted immunity
from nuisance actions. Id. at 171–73. While the statute generally barred
nuisance actions, exceptions to immunity were made when (1) the animal feeding
operation interfered “unreasonably and for substantial periods of time” with the
“comfortable use and enjoyment” of the person’s life or property, and (2) “the
animal feeding operation failed to use existing prudent generally accepted
management practices reasonable for the operation.” Id. at 173 (quoting Iowa
Code § 657.11(2)(b) (1999)).
On the nuisance question, we noted that under prior caselaw, article I,
section 1 was designed “to secure common law rights pre-dating the
constitution.” Id. at 176. In determining the issue, we focused on three
questions: The first question, the existence of preexisting common law rights, we
found that property rights included “the rights of use and enjoyment.” Id. at 177
(quoting Liddick v. City of Council Bluffs, 5 N.W.2d 361, 374 (Iowa 1942)). The
second question, whether the nuisance immunity statute was within the police
power of the state, we concluded that it was. Id. We then turned to the third
59
question, whether the statute was a reasonable exercise of police power. Id. at
178–79. In considering whether the statute was a reasonable exercise of police
power, we cited two traditional Iowa cases for the proposition that restrictions
that are unduly oppressive may be invalid: Steinberg–Baum & Co. v. Countryman,
77 N.W.2d 15, 19 (Iowa 1956) (holding that “restrictions that are prohibitive,
oppressive or highly injurious . . . are invalid”), and State v. Osborne, 154 N.W.
294, 300 (Iowa 1915) (holding article I, section 1 includes the right to pursue
useful and harmless business “without the imposition of oppressive burdens by
the lawmaking power” (emphasis added)). Gacke, 684 N.W.2d at 177. Our
precedent, of course, is not limited to only two cases. In Gravert v. Nebergall, we
emphasized that for the legislature to exercise the state’s police power, the means
chosen must not be “unduly oppressive upon individuals.” 539 N.W.2d 184, 186
(Iowa 1995) (quoting Lawton v. Steele, 152 U.S. 133, 136–37 (1894)). In short,
the three-part Gacke test was not an outlier in Iowa law but represented a
conventional test for judicial review of property rights issues.
In considering whether the legislation was unduly oppressive under the
third part of the inalienable rights test we applied in Gacke, we identified three
facts that showed it was oppressive to the Gackes: they received no particular
benefit from the immunity provision other than that inuring to the public in
general, they spent considerable sums to improve their property prior to
construction of the facility, and they resided on their property long before the
animal operation was commenced. 684 N.W.2d at 178; see also Honomichl v.
Valley View Swine, LLC, 914 N.W.2d 223, 234–35 (Iowa 2018) (explaining that
60
“[o]ur holding that section 657.11(2) was unconstitutional under the inalienable
rights clause as applied in Gacke was primarily based on three facts present in
that case” and identifying three things a plaintiff needed to show under Gacke).
The consideration of these facts in determining whether a regulation is
oppressive was a sound, reasonable approach.
Now the majority asserts that there is no textual support in article I,
section 1 of the Iowa Constitution for the three factors utilized in Gacke. But this
is a meaningless observation. When a court develops legal doctrine under an
open-textured constitutional provision such as this, there is never express
textual support. If there is textual support, there is no need to develop doctrine.
While the majority notes that there is no text in article I, section 1 embracing the
Gacke test, there is equally no text embracing the federal rational basis test
dragooned into service by the majority. So, the majority’s “no textual support”
argument proves too much—if it is correct, then the rational basis test is invalid,
too.
That the majority does not like the court’s consideration of the three
factors in Gacke does not mean it can simply eliminate the unduly-oppressive
part from the three-part inalienable rights test we used in that case. The majority
concludes that the consideration of the three factors is unworkable, but then
proceeds to remove the unduly oppressive element from the overall test. The
three-part inalienable rights test enunciated in Gacke is a traditional test that
has been cited many times, not only in Iowa but in the caselaw generally. The
test seems to have originated in the United States Supreme Court case of Lawton
61
v. Steele, 152 U.S. at 136–37, and was applied by multiple courts in the early
twentieth century. See, e.g., Mack v. Westbrook, 98 S.E. 339, 341–42 (Ga. 1919);
In re Boyce, 75 P. 1, 6 (Nev. 1904); Frank L. Fisher Co. v. Woods, 79 N.E. 836,
837–38 (N.Y. 1907); Froelich v. City of Cleveland, 124 N.E. 212, 216 (Ohio 1919).
With the coming of the New Deal and the new approach to government
regulation adopted by the United States Supreme Court in cases like Williamson
v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, 348 U.S. 483 (1955), some courts may have been
tempted to fall in line with changing federal law. An example is Yim v. City of
Seattle, where the Supreme Court of Washington eliminated the “unduly
oppressive” test from its takings law and substantive due process law, citing
evolving Supreme Court precedent. 451 P.3d 694, 699–702 (Wash. 2019). In the
State of Washington, for years, courts applied a test when reviewing economic
regulation that included an “unduly oppressive” formulation like Gacke. Id. at
698–701 (discussing the Lawton “unduly oppressive” test, noticing it is more
demanding than the ordinary rational basis review).
But there are cases heading in the opposite direction as well. In Patel v.
Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation, the Supreme Court of Texas
concluded that under the “due course of law” provision of the Texas Constitution,
the cosmetology licensing applied to eyebrow threaders was overly “oppressive.”
469 S.W.3d 69, 87–90 (Tex. 2015); see Tex. Const. art. I, § 19 (due course of law
provision). In Ladd v. Real Estate Commission, the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania likewise held that the commonwealth’s police power must not be
62
conducted in a manner that is “unduly oppressive” 230 A.3d 1096, 1106, 1111–
15 (Pa. 2020).
The majority asserts that we departed from the traditional approach of
Gacke in City of Sioux City v. Jacobsma, 862 N.W.2d 335, 352 (Iowa 2015). The
majority suggests that in Jacobsma, we held that the rational basis test should
be applied to article I, section 1 claims. Well, not exactly. In fact, in Jacobsma,
“we ha[d] not been asked to develop a substantive standard under the Iowa due
process clause different than the applicable federal standard.” Id. at 347.
Similarly, although we noted that there was controversy on the standard to apply
to claims under article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution, we observed in
Jacobsma that the only argument advanced by the plaintiff was that the
ordinance being challenged was “not a reasonable regulation and is an arbitrary
restraint.” Id. at 352. We did not “hold” anything as a result of a contested
adversary proceeding, but simply accepted the parties’ framing of the issue for
purposes of that case. And the context in Jacobsma, of course, involving a traffic
ticket for an infraction, is completely different than the transfer of an interest in
property from one owner to another. Id. at 337. As a result, Jacobsma featured
limited advocacy of the parties, the subsequent limitation of the issues by this
court, and a complete lack of adversarial presentation on the key issue of
standard of review of article I, section 1 claims. This nonprecedent is a slender
reed and cannot be used as a lever to overturn the results of the thoroughly
litigated and highly adversarial processes in Gacke and Honomichl v. Valley View
Swine L.L.C.
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There is talk in the majority of stare decisis. Gacke has been around,
however, for almost twenty years and was reaffirmed in 2018 in Honomichl. See
914 N.W.2d at 236–39. The Honomichl case noted that there had been some
changes in the legal landscape since Gacke, including legislative amendments to
the statute requiring a manure management plan and a requirement that the
Iowa Department of Natural Resources adopt standards related to an application
for construction or expansion of an animal facility. Id. at 237. Yet, in Honomichl,
we stated that the analytical framework of Gacke was “still compatible with
present conditions.” Id. And, although the Honomichl dissent urged adoption of
the rational basis test, the Honomichl majority noted that “the court is unable to
discern a satisfactory alternative standard to apply.” Id. We can surely presume
that the Honomichl majority was familiar with the rational basis test advocated
by the dissent but nevertheless rejected it. So, not only does the majority today
abandon the two-decade old traditional test in Gacke, but it also overrules the
relatively recent case of Honomichl where the rational basis test alternative, now
adopted by the majority, was necessarily rejected, where changed circumstances
were not considered sufficient, and Gacke’s principles were retained.
The suggestion is made that Gacke is an outlier. The cases from Iowa and
elsewhere described above show that is not the case. Nonetheless, the majority
cites three intermediate appellate court cases for that proposition: Marsh v.
Sandstone North, LLC, 179 N.E.3d 402, 426–30 (Ill. App. Ct. 2020), Himsel v.
Himsel, 122 N.E.3d 935, 946–49 (Ind. Ct. App. 2019), and Rural Empowerment
Ass’n for Community Help v. State, 868 S.E.2d 645, 655 (N.C. Ct. App. 2021).
64
None of the three cited cases involve a challenge to nuisance immunity under a
declaration-of-rights-type provision in state constitutional law. Marsh involved
equal protection and separation-of-powers challenges to right-to-farm
legislation. 179 N.E.3d at 426–30. The musings of the intermediate appellate
court on these issues are mildly interesting but irrelevant to the application of a
declaration of rights provision such as that contained in article I, section 1 of the
Iowa Constitution to a statutory immunity issue. In Himsel, an intermediate
appellate court found that the right-to-farm law in Indiana was not a taking or a
violation of the open court or privileges and immunities clauses of the Indiana
Constitution. 122 N.E.3d at 946–50. Again, the Himsel court did not discuss the
statutory immunity in the context of constitutional inalienable rights analysis.
Lastly, Rural Empowerment Ass’n held that there was no violation of the law of
the land clause or due process clause of the North Carolina Constitution, that
the challenged legislation was not a special or private law, and that no
deprivation of the right to a jury trial occurred. 868 S.E.2d at 653–55. Again,
there was no statutory nuisance immunity and no effort to enforce a declaration
of rights clause specifically protecting property interests. These court cases are
doing nothing to undermine Gacke.
The real question here is whether the unduly oppressive part of the Gacke
test, firmly rooted in the traditional approach to government regulation and
reaffirmed only a few years ago in Honomichl, should be abandoned. I say no.
Overturning Gacke is inconsistent with stare decisis. In any event, oppression of
a property owner like that which results from the operation of the immunity
65
statute in this case should not be permitted because it invades the property
interest protected by article I, section 1 of the Iowa Constitution.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Oxley, J., joins this dissent.
66
#21–0652, Garrison v. New Fashion Pork LLC
McDONALD, Justice (dissenting).
The Iowa Constitution affords strong protection for private property.
Article I, section 9 of the constitution provides that “no person shall be deprived
of . . . property[] without due process of law.” Iowa Const. art. I, § 9. Article I,
section 18 of the constitution provides that “[p]rivate property shall not be taken
for public use without just compensation first being made . . . as soon as the
damages shall be assessed by a jury.” Id. art. I, § 18. And article I, section 1 of
the constitution provides that “[a]ll men and women . . . have certain inalienable
rights—among which are those of . . . acquiring, possessing and protecting
property.” Id. art. I, § 1. These interrelated constitutional provisions preclude the
government from immunizing private nuisancers from having to pay full
compensation for depriving another of the right to use and enjoy property. At
least they did until today. The majority overturns well-supported and
well-established caselaw and eviscerates the right to possess, use, enjoy, and
protect property. I respectfully dissent.
I.
The majority does not faithfully apply our law regarding rational basis
review. The police power is broad but not unlimited. “[T]he police power, like all
other powers of the state, is subordinate to the Constitution, and if the
Legislature, under the guise of police regulation, transgress the express or clearly
implied limits drawn by the Constitution, the courts will hold the act void and of
no effect.” McGuire v. Chi., B. & Q. R. Co., 108 N.W. 902, 907 (Iowa 1906). In
67
determining whether the state’s exercise of the police power is lawful, this court
must analyze the constitutionality of both the end and the means of a statute:
To justify the state in thus interposing its authority in behalf of the
public, it must appear, first, that the interests of the public
generally, as distinguished from those of a particular class, require
such interference; and, second, that the means are reasonably
necessary for the accomplishment of the purpose, and not unduly
oppressive upon individuals.
Gravert v. Nebergall, 539 N.W.2d 184, 186 (Iowa 1995) (quoting Lawton v. Steele,
152 U.S. 133, 136–37 (1894)); see State v. Hartog, 440 N.W.2d 852, 857 (Iowa
1989). The classical formulation of the test was best articulated by the Great
Chief Justice: “Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the
constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to
that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the
constitution, are constitutional.” M’Culloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316, 421 (1819).
The majority conducts only a truncated review of the statutory immunity
granted certain animal feeding operations. The majority looks at the legislature’s
end, concludes the end is legitimate, and probes little further. Pursuant to
Gravert v. Nebergall and Lawton v. Steele and the traditional understanding of
judicial review, including rational basis review, more is required. The majority’s
truncated review is not a faithful application of the relevant law.
II.
In contrast to the majority’s truncated review, Gacke v. Pork Xtra, L.L.C.
faithfully applied the relevant law and examined the constitutionality of both the
end and the means of Iowa Code 657.11. 684 N.W.2d 168 (Iowa 2004). Gacke
concluded the legislature’s end—the promotion of certain types of animal feeding
68
operations—was legitimate but the means—stripping away the constitutional
right to protect property by way of a private nuisance action—was not. Id. at 179.
Gacke’s conclusion is better supported by the relevant precedents than the
majority’s view.
The leading case is Richards v. Washington Terminal Co., 233 U.S. 546(1914). In Richards, the plaintiff brought a nuisance suit against a railroad where
“smoke, cinders, and gases enter[ed] the dwelling house and settle[d] upon the
furniture and other personal property contained in it, contaminat[ed] the air and
render[ed] the house objectionable as a habitation.” Id. at 550. The plaintiff
sought damages for depreciation of the value of his property, damage to his
furniture and other belongings, and damage to the structure of his home, as well
as damages for “disturbing the peace and slumber of the occupants.” Id. The
United States Supreme Court held that “there [was] a right of recovery.” Id. at
551. In reaching that conclusion, the Court rejected the railroad’s contention
that it was immune from suit due to the statute authorizing the construction of
the railroad. Id. at 551–52. The Court explained that “[t]he courts of England”
had concluded that “Parliament, being omnipotent, may authorize the taking of
private property for public use without compensation to the owner.” Id. at 552(capitalization altered). But, in America, “the legislation . . . must be construed
in the light of the provision of the 5th Amendment—‘Nor shall private property
be taken for public use without just compensation’—and is not to be given an
effect inconsistent with its letter or spirit.” Id. at 552–53 (quoting U.S. Const.
amend. V). The Court recognized that there was no taking of land presented in
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the case. See id. at 552 (“And since he is not wholly excluded from the use and
enjoyment of his property, there has been no ‘taking’ of the land in the ordinary
sense.”). Nonetheless, the Court “deem[ed] the true rule, under the 5th
Amendment, as under state constitutions containing a similar prohibition, to be
that while the legislature may legalize what otherwise would be a public
nuisance, it may not confer immunity from action for a private nuisance.” Id. at
553 (emphasis added).
Our decision in Bormann v. Board of Supervisors directly followed from
Richards. 584 N.W.2d 309 (Iowa 1998) (en banc). Bormann involved a challenge
to a statute providing private nuisance immunity to farms operated within a
designated agricultural area. Id. at 313. In evaluating the statute, the Bormann
court explained that under Iowa law, “the right to maintain a nuisance is an
easement.” Id. at 315. The private nuisance immunity provision thus “create[d]
an easement in the property affected by the nuisance (the servient tenement) in
favor of the applicants’ land (the dominant tenement). This [was] because the
immunity allow[ed] the applicants to do acts on their own land which, were it
not for the easement, would constitute a nuisance.” Id. at 316. Thus, the
Bormann court concluded the statutory immunity provision was an
unconstitutional taking without compensation. Id. at 319–20. “[T]he state cannot
regulate property so as to insulate the users from potential private nuisance
claims without providing just compensation to persons injured by the nuisance.”
Id.70
Gacke was a logical extension of Richards and Bormann. Under Iowa law,
the proper measure of damages for a permanent nuisance is not limited to “the
diminution in the market value of the property.” Weinhold v. Wolff, 555 N.W.2d
454, 465 (Iowa 1996) (en banc); see Miller v. Town of Ankeny, 114 N.W.2d 910,
914 (Iowa 1962). A landowner is also entitled to “recover such other special
damages the landowner can prove.” Weinhold, 555 N.W.2d at 465. This includes
“the damages he himself suffers from deprivation of the comfortable enjoyment
of his property, and the inconvenience and discomfort suffered by himself and
his family, or other affected persons.” Id. (quoting 58 Am. Jur. 2d Nuisances
§ 296 (1989)); see Miller, 114 N.W.2d at 914. Gacke concluded that the immunity
provision was “unduly oppressive” and thus unconstitutional because it denied
the owner of the right to full compensation. 684 N.W.2d at 179. Gacke’s
conclusion that a landowner is constitutionally entitled to complete relief for
private nuisance is wholly consistent with and a logical extension of Richards
and Bormann. See id. at 175.
The majority attempts to justify overruling Gacke on the ground that it has
been undermined by subsequent decisions. I disagree. This court and the court
of appeals have explicitly restated, reaffirmed, and expanded Gacke. See, e.g.,
Merrill v. Valley View Swine, LLC, 941 N.W.2d 10, 17–18 (Iowa 2020) (concluding
that the plaintiff’s claim was frivolous under the Gacke three-factor test);
Honomichl v. Valley View Swine, LLC, 914 N.W.2d 223, 234–37 (Iowa 2018)
(applying principles of stare decisis to hold that defendants had not shown Gacke
should be overruled); Dalarna Farms v. Access Energy Coop., 792 N.W.2d 656,
71
663–64 (Iowa 2010) (comparing Gacke’s holding to a statute that reduced
damages based on comparative fault); McIlrath v. Prestage Farms of Iowa, L.L.C.,
No. 15–1599, 2016 WL 6902328, at *3 (Iowa Ct. App. Nov. 23, 2016) (applying
Gacke’s holding). As we explained just five years ago, the statutory immunity in
Iowa Code section 657.11 is an unlawful adjustment of the rights between
private parties that violates the inalienable rights clause of the Iowa
Constitution:
In Gacke, we further held the immunity was unconstitutional under
the inalienable rights clause of the Iowa Constitution, article I,
section 1. We reiterated that provision “was intended to secure
citizens’ pre-existing common law rights (sometimes known as
‘natural rights’) from unwarranted government restrictions.” We
concluded the immunity unconstitutionally hindered the Gackes’
private property rights for the benefit of the defendant’s private
business operated as a nuisance.
Bd. of Water Works Trs. v. Sac Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors, 890 N.W.2d 50, 71 (Iowa
2017) (citations omitted) (quoting Gacke, 684 N.W.2d at 176).
The majority contends that these more specific cases explicitly reaffirming
Gacke have been undermined by other cases applying rational basis review. The
majority’s argument is flawed for several reasons. First, the more specific cases
explicitly reaffirming Gacke would control over the more general cases. Second,
and related, none of the cases cited by the majority involve rational basis review
of a statute allegedly infringing the enumerated right to acquire, possess, and
protect property. See, e.g., Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, Inc. v. Reynolds,
962 N.W.2d 37, 46–57 (Iowa 2021) (addressing equal protection and due process
claims related to grant funding); Gray v. Oliver, 943 N.W.2d 617, 629–33 (Iowa
2020) (addressing due process and equal protection claims related to
72
assignments of legal malpractice claims); Clark v. Ins. Co. State of Pa., 927
N.W.2d 180, 190–91 (Iowa 2019) (addressing constitutional challenges to
personal injury claims and workers’ compensation law); Midwest Check
Cashing, Inc. v. Richey, 728 N.W.2d 396, 402–05 (Iowa 2007) (addressing
constitutional challenges to payday loan provisions in the Delayed Deposit
Services Licensing Act (Iowa Code chapter 533D)); Atwood v. Vilsack, 725 N.W.2d
641, 652 (Iowa 2006) (concluding that “the State’s interests in rehabilitating
sexually violent predators and protecting the public” outweighed the predator’s
liberty interest to bail in a civil commitment proceedings).
The majority also attempts to justify overruling Gacke on the ground that
other jurisdictions have not followed Gacke. But the majority’s reliance on
persuasive precedents actually undermines its case that Gacke was wrongly
decided. Quoting Honomichl v. Valley View Swine, LLC, the majority correctly
notes that “Iowa is the only state to hold that the statutory immunity available
under its right-to-farm law is unconstitutional in any manner.” 914 N.W.2d at
233 & n.2 (collecting cases rejecting constitutional challenges). What the
majority fails to note, however, is that Iowa property and nuisance law is unique
insofar as Iowa law recognizes that the right to maintain a nuisance is an
easement. See Lindsey v. DeGroot, 898 N.E.2d 1251, 1259 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009)
(“We note that like the Idaho and Texas courts, we have found nothing to suggest
that Indiana has adopted the seemingly unique Iowa holding that the right to
maintain a nuisance is an easement.”); N. William Hines, CAFOs and U.S. Law,
107 Iowa L. Rev. Online 19, 55 (2022) [hereinafter Hines, CAFOs] (explaining
73
Iowa law is unique because, “among the 50 states, only the Iowa courts apply
this easement analysis” to nuisance claims). Given the unique nature of our
property and nuisance law, it should be no surprise that constitutional
protections for property rights apply differently in Iowa.
The majority also fails to note that Iowa’s immunity provision is an outlier
when compared to other states. The Iowa statute wholly deprives a property
owner of the right to assert a private nuisance action and seek full compensation.
See Iowa Code § 657.11(2) (2020). In contrast, other states generally have
enacted a statute of repose with respect to private nuisance actions. See, e.g.,
Overgaard v. Rock Cnty. Bd. of Comm’rs, No. Civ.A.02–601 (DWF/AJB), 2003 WL
21744235, at *7 (D. Minn. July 25, 2003) (“In Minnesota, the Right to Farm Act
creates a two-year window before the immunity from nuisance suit applies. This
is different from Iowa, where the Right to Farm Act creates immediate immunity
from nuisance suit.”); Lindsey, 898 N.E.2d at 1259 (discussing the one-year
period of repose under Indiana law); Terence J. Centner, Governments and
Unconstitutional Takings: When Do Right-to-Farm Laws Go Too Far, 33 B.C. Envtl.
Aff. L. Rev. 87, 146 (2006) (discussing state right-to-farm laws and stating that
compared to other states, the “Iowa statutes may have crossed th[e] threshold”
as an “unconstitutional taking”); Beau R. Morgan, Note, Iowa and Right to Farm:
An Analysis of the Constitutionality of Right to Farm Statutes Across the United
States, 53 Creighton L. Rev. 623, 637 (2020) (surveying right-to-farm statutes,
stating the “Iowa statute is unlike many other right to farm statutes,” and stating
74
“[u]nlike other states, neighboring property owners in Iowa have no opportunity
or timeframe to bring a nuisance claim”). As one treatise explains:
The Iowa statutes involved in Bormann and [Gacke] differ from
most states’ right to farm laws in that they neither required the
agricultural operation to have been established before the
neighboring nonagricultural uses, nor provided a statute of repose
giving neighbors a window of time during which they could bring a
nuisance claim against a newly established agricultural operation.
In other words, the statutes granted agricultural operations a
nearly absolute right to create a nuisance, regardless of whether
the neighbors “came to the nuisance” or acquiesced in its
creation. Because of the exceptional nuisance protection
provided by the Iowa laws, courts have distinguished other
states’ right to farm laws and found them not to constitute
unlawful takings.
Patricia E. Salkin, 4 American Law of Zoning § 33:5, Westlaw (5th ed. database
updated May 2022) (emphasis added). It should come as no surprise that this
court in Bormann and Gacke reached a different result than courts in other
jurisdictions since the Iowa statute at issue is an extreme deprivation of rights
not even attempted in other jurisdictions.
III.
Rather than overruling Gacke, I would reaffirm the core of Gacke and hold
the private nuisance immunity in Iowa Code section 657.11 is per se unduly
oppressive under Gacke’s three-part test and is thus per se unconstitutional.
See Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer et al., Land Use Planning and Development
Regulation Law § 14:7, Westlaw (3d ed. database updated Nov. 2021) (“[T]he
legislature is limited in its ability to legalize a private nuisance . . . .”). This
conclusion arises necessarily out of a proper understanding of fundamental
75
principles of property and nuisance law in Iowa and a proper understanding of
the police power.
Under Iowa law, property is not merely the corporeal thing itself; it is the
bundle of rights associated with the corporeal thing. This understanding of
property is codified at Iowa Code section 4.1(13), which defines “land,” “real
estate,” and “real property” to “include lands, tenements, hereditaments, and all
rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal.” The statutory
definition merely codified the definition of property repeatedly set forth in our
precedents:
“A little reflection, however, will suffice to convince any one that
property is not the corporeal thing itself of which it is predicated,
but certain rights in or over the thing. . . . We must, therefore, look
beyond the thing itself, beyond the mere corporeal object, for the
true idea of property. Property may be defined as certain rights in
things which pertain to persons and which are created and
sanctioned by law. These rights are the right of use, the right of
exclusion and the right of disposition.” . . . “These rights, wherever
they exist, and to the extent to which they are secured by law, are
part and parcel of the owner’s property in land.”
Harrison–Pottawattamie Drainage Dist. No. 1 v. State, 156 N.W.2d 835, 838–39,
(Iowa 1968) (first omission in original) (quoting Liddick v. City of Council Bluffs,
5 N.W.2d 361, 372 (Iowa 1942)); see Bormann, 584 N.W.2d at 315; Simpson v.
Iowa State Highway Comm’n, 195 N.W.2d 528, 535 (Iowa 1972); Liddick, 5
N.W.2d at 374; Wapsie Power & Light Co. v. City of Tipton, 193 N.W. 643, 645
(Iowa 1923).
The bundle of property rights has been defined and refined over time.
Included among the intangible property rights in this bundle are “the right of
user and enjoyment, right of exclusion, right of disposition, and . . . [the right]
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to be protected from unreasonable uses of neighboring property.” Liddick, 5
N.W.2d at 374. Excluded from the intangible property rights in this bundle is the
right to use one’s property to injure others. See Gray, 943 N.W.2d at 631–32;
Snyder v. Bernstein Bros., 208 N.W. 503, 504 (Iowa 1926); McGuire, 108 N.W. at
907; In re Ruth, 32 Iowa 250, 252 (1871); Wallace v. City of Muscatine, 4 Greene
373, 375 (Iowa 1854). “[E]very holder of property . . . holds it under the implied
liability that his use of it shall not be injurious to the equal enjoyment of others
having an equal right to the enjoyment of their property, nor injurious to the
rights of the community.” McGill v. Pintsch Compressing Co., 118 N.W. 786, 788
(Iowa 1908) (quoting Commonwealth v. Alger, 61 Mass. (7 Cush.) 53, 84–85
(1851)). This is true even where the offending property owner exercised care to
prevent injury. See Rhoades v. Cook, 98 N.W. 122, 123 (Iowa 1904); Millhiser v.
Willard, 65 N.W. 325, 326 (Iowa 1895).
The law of nuisance protects the intangible property right of user and
enjoyment and the right to be protected from unreasonable uses of neighboring
property. Iowa Code section 657.1(1) defines a nuisance as “[w]hatever is
injurious to health, indecent, or unreasonably offensive to the senses, or an
obstruction to the free use of property, so as essentially to interfere unreasonably
with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.” See also 2 William
Blackstone, Commentaries *215–16 (defining nuisance as a “species of real
injuries to a man’s lands and tenements” or anything that “worketh hurt,
inconvenience, or damage” to property).
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The keeping or production of animals that pollute the air is the prototypical
infringement of private property by nuisance. As explained in the Commentaries,
“Also if a person keeps his hogs, or other noisome animals, so near the house of
another that the stench of them incommodes him and makes the air
unwholesome, this is an injurious nuisance, as it tends to deprive him of the use
and benefit of his house.” Id. at *216–17 (footnote omitted). It is not necessary
for the injured property owner to show “that the smell should be unwholesome:
it is enough if it renders the enjoyment of life and property uncomfortable.” Id.*217 n.2 (quoting Rex v. White, 1 Burr. 337). The injured party is entitled
damages “for the injury sustained.” Id. at *220.
The seminal nuisance case dates from 1610. Aldred’s Case, (1610) 77 Eng.
Rep. 816 (KB). In that case, William Aldred sued Thomas Benton for injunctive
relief and for damages arising out of Benton’s keeping of a pigsty. Id. at 816.
Aldred claimed the odor emanating from the sty made the air unbreathable and
blocked his natural light. Id. at 817. Benton defended against the suit on the
ground that his farm operation was “necessary for the sustenance of man” and
on the ground that Aldred “ought not to have so delicate a nose.” Id. The court
rejected the defenses, relying on the ancient principle sic utere tuo ut alienum
non lædas, which means one must use one’s property in a manner that does not
injure other people’s property. Id. at 821. The court concluded Aldred was
entitled to damages because Benton’s sty interfered with the basic necessities of
life, including the ability to breathe “wholesome air.” Id. Aldred was entitled to
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damages even though there was no physical invasion of or damage to Aldred’s
property. See id.
Between the time of the Aldred decision and Iowa’s founding, it was black
letter law in America that offensive smells from animal agriculture could
constitute both a public and private nuisance. See, e.g., Whitney v. Bartholomew,
21 Conn. 213, 218–19 (1851); Smiths v. McConathy, 11 Mo. 517, 518 (1848);
Catlin v. Valentine, 9 Paige Ch. 575, 576 (N.Y. Ch. 1842); Shaw v. Kennedy, 4
N.C. (Taylor) 591, 592 (1817); Commonwealth v. Van Sickle, 1 Brightly 69, 71
(Pa. 1845); Burditt v. Swenson, 17 Tex. 489, 502 (1856).
The law in Iowa was no different. In State v. Kaster, this court upheld a
verdict finding the defendant’s hog pen was a nuisance. 35 Iowa 221, 225–26
(1872). The confinement “occasioned noxious exhalations, offensive smells,
unwholesome smells, so that the air was then and there greatly corrupted and
infected thereby, and other annoyances becoming and being dangerous to the
health, comfort and property of the good people residing in that immediate
neighborhood.” Id. at 223. This court rejected the defendant’s contention that he
should be allowed to show the public benefitted from his animal operation as a
defense to the action. Id. at 224 (stating a nuisance defendant “will not be
permitted to show that the public benefit resulting from his act is equal to the
public inconvenience which arises from it” (quoting Rex v. Ward, 4 Adolph. & E.
384 (31 Eng. Com. L. 92))); see also Valasek v. Baer, 401 N.W.2d 33, 35 (Iowa
1987) (“The fact that defendant’s hog operation was a lawful business and was
being carried on in accordance with accepted standards does not impact on the
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finding of a nuisance. A lawful business, properly conducted, may still constitute
a nuisance if it interferes with another’s use of his own property.”).
In Shiras v. Olinger, this court held that a stable was not per se a nuisance.
50 Iowa 571, 575 (1879). However, the stable could become a nuisance
depending on its manner of operation. Id. In that case, the evidence was
sufficient to establish a nuisance:
[I]n regard to the plaintiff’s house it is clearly established that
offensive odors were almost constantly perceived within it, and that
sometimes they were such as to render it necessary to keep the
doors and windows closed upon the east and south sides. Expert
evidence was introduced to the effect that while it is not clearly
established that gases from a livery stable generate any specific
disease, they are regarded by the medical profession as noxious if
allowed to permeate residences, increasing exposure to disease,
especially in case of epidemics, and constituting generally in disease
an aggravating element. Evidence was also introduced showing that
sickness in the plaintiff’s family and other families near the stable
had probably occurred or been aggravated by gases from the stable.
Id. at 573.
In accord with Kaster and Shiras, this court has repeatedly held that
barns, pens, and other animal operations were nuisances if they caused harm
or injury to others or otherwise unreasonably interfered with others’ equal right
to possess, use, and enjoy their property. See, e.g., Patz v. Farmegg Prods., Inc.,
196 N.W.2d 557, 559–60, 562 (Iowa 1972) (holding an industrial poultry
operation was “clearly” a nuisance and stating that “[t]he raising of over 80,000
chickens in one facility is not incident to rural life”); Rhoades, 98 N.W. at 123
(“Under our statutes, anything which produces noxious exhalations, offensive
smells, or other annoyances injurious to the health, comfort, or property of
individuals, is a nuisance. It is not necessary that these odors be deleterious to
80
health. It is sufficient if they offend the senses in such a manner as to produce
actual discomfort.”); Trulock v. Merte, 34 N.W. 307, 309 (Iowa 1887) (“The
evidence shows that they kept the pen as clean as was possible, yet offensive
smells arose from it, which penetrated plaintiff’s house. The pen, when used for
that purpose, would necessarily be a nuisance, and plaintiff is entitled to have it
abated.”); Cook v. Benson, 17 N.W. 470, 472 (Iowa 1883) (holding the evidence
was sufficient to establish a nuisance where a barn emitted “smells and vapors”
and the plaintiff was hindered by “flies and effluvia from that barn”).
In light of these precedents, this court correctly concluded in Gacke that
granting certain animal feeding operations immunity from private nuisance
actions was unduly oppressive and not a constitutional means of exercising the
police power. “The spirit which pervades the police power is closely related to
that which is embodied in the common-law maxim, ‘Sic utere tuo alienum non
lædas.’ ” McGuire, 108 N.W. at 907. That is, the police power, properly
understood, includes the power to prevent harmful uses of property but not the
power to facilitate harmful uses of property that infringe on the property rights
of others. See May’s Drug Stores, Inc. v. State Tax Comm’n, 45 N.W.2d 245, 250–
51 (stating the police power includes “such reasonable supervision and
regulation as the state may impose, to insure observance of the individual citizen
of the duty to use his property and exercise his rights and privileges with due
regard to the personal and property rights and privileges of others” (emphasis
added)). This was the understanding of the police power at the time of Iowa’s
founding. See Thomas M. Cooley, A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations
81
Which Rest upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union 572–
74 (1868) (“According to the maxim, Sic utere tuo ut alienum non lædas, which
being of universal application, it must, of course, be within the range of
legislative action to define the mode and manner in which every one may so use
his own as not to injure others.” (quoting Thorpe v. Rutland & Burlington R.R., 27
Vt. 140, 149 (1855))). This maxim is inherent in the very concept of property
rights: property rights do not include a right to use one’s property to injure
another. See Gray, 943 N.W.2d at 631–32; Snyder, 208 N.W. at 504; McGill, 118
N.W. at 788; In re Ruth, 32 Iowa at 251–52; Wallace, 4 Greene at 375; Aldred’s
Case, 77 Eng. Rep. at 821. But the statutory immunity granted in Iowa Code
section 657.11 is wholly contrary to this maxim. It strips one property owner of
the right “to be protected from unreasonable uses of neighboring property.”
Liddick, 5 N.W.2d at 374. And it grants another property owner the right to injure
his neighbor. This is outside the police power, and this our law does not allow.
See, e.g., In re Ruth, 32 Iowa at 252 (“[N]either can property be acquired, enjoyed
and disposed of to the peril of the lives, health, happiness and property of
others.”).17
Intimately related to this point, this court correctly concluded in Gacke
that granting immunity to private nuisancers deprives injured property owners
of the constitutionally enumerated right to “protect property” through the use of
the legal process. To flesh out this point further, it is important to distinguish
17See generally Sam Spiegelman & Gregory C. Sisk, Cedar Point: Lockean Property and
the Search for a Lost Liberalism, 2021 Cato Sup. Ct. Rev. 165 (discussing the limits of the police
power).
82
between public nuisances and private nuisances. “There are public nuisances,
and there are private nuisances. A public or common nuisance is a species of
catchall criminal offenses, consisting of an interference with the rights of a
community at large. . . . A private nuisance, on the other hand, is a civil wrong
based on a disturbance of rights in land.” Guzman v. Des Moines Hotel
Partners, Ltd., 489 N.W.2d 7, 10 (Iowa 1992). There can be no doubt that the
state may define what does and what does not constitute a public nuisance.
What the state may not do, however, is immunize a private nuisance because
doing so deprives the injured property owner of the “right of user and enjoyment”
and the right “to be protected from unreasonable uses of neighboring property.”
Liddick, 5 N.W.2d at 374; see Richards, 233 U.S. at 553 (“[W]hile the legislature
may legalize what otherwise would be a public nuisance, it may not confer
immunity from action for a private nuisance . . . .”); Note, Nuisance and
Legislative Authorization, 52 Colum. L. Rev. 781, 784–85 (1952) (“[T]he
legislature has no power whatever to privilege a private nuisance.”).
Our cases have repeatedly distinguished between public and private
nuisance and have noted how this distinction limits the state’s exercise of the
police power with respect to immunizing private nuisance:
It is sometimes said that that which is authorized by law cannot be
a nuisance. In one sense, that is true. In another, it is an incorrect
statement of the law. An act done under such circumstances, and
within the proper limits of the power given, would not constitute a
public nuisance for which one might be indicted, but might be a
private nuisance; and damages resulting therefrom, as a private
nuisance, might be recovered, and in such a case the legislative
grant would be no protection.
83
Churchill v. Burlington Water Co., 62 N.W. 646, 646–47 (Iowa 1895) (emphasis
added); see Richards, 233 U.S. at 553; Dalarna Farms, 792 N.W.2d at 663 (“[A]
statute purporting to immunize a defendant who creates or maintains a nuisance
from liability to another for the value of the diminution of the property caused
by the nuisance is unconstitutional.”); Simpson, 195 N.W.2d at 535 (“The State
is constitutionally prohibited from restricting the rights of adjacent landowners
or enlarging their duties in the absence of condemnation proceedings which
would include such restrictions or enlargements.”); Bushnell v. Robeson, 17 N.W.
888, 890 (Iowa 1883) (“A nuisance may be both public and private. That is to
say, a nuisance may affect the public, and yet an individual may be injuriously
affected in such capacity as distinguished from the public at large. When this is
the case, he is entitled to relief.” (citation omitted)).
Gordon Garrison has alleged precisely the type of harm necessary to
support his claim that the defendants infringed his right to be free from
unreasonable uses of neighboring property. Evidence supporting Garrison’s
nuisance claim against the defendants included an odor calendar showing his
property was subject to odor from hogs on about one-third of all days. Garrison
reported experiencing nausea and dizziness from the odor and reported the odor
sometimes forced him to stop working outdoors. Nearby landowners
corroborated Garrison’s complaints about the odor. Garrison’s allegations would
be sufficient to allow a jury to find the defendants’ confined animal feeding
operation (CAFO) constitutes a nuisance because it interferes with Garrison’s
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“private use and enjoyment of his land.” Larsen v. McDonald, 212 N.W.2d 505,
508 (Iowa 1973).
Garrison’s experience is not unusual. The damage, degradation, and
destruction caused by industrial animal feeding operations is well-documented.
See, e.g., McKiver v. Murphy–Brown, LLC, 980 F.3d 937, 980–83 (4th Cir. 2020)
(Wilkinson, J., concurring) (discussing the harms caused by industrial hog
farming and concluding that “[t]he scale of industrial hog farming is no warrant
to ride roughshod over the property rights of neighbors, the health of workers
and community members, and the lives of the hogs themselves”); Hines, CAFOs,
107 Iowa L. Rev. Online at 21 (“The threats CAFOs can pose to the health,
property rights, and general well-being of neighboring landowners . . . are well
described and documented . . . .”); N. William Hines, Here We Go Again: A Third
Legislative Attempt to Protect Polluting Iowa CAFOs from Neighbors’ Nuisance
Actions, 103 Iowa L. Rev. Online 41, 44–46 (2018) (discussing public health
concerns and environmental problems caused by CAFOs); Michelle
Johnson-Weider, From Factory Farming to a Sustainable Food System: A
Legislative Approach, 32 Geo. Env’t L. Rev. 685, 688–701 (2020) (discussing
harms to humans and the environment caused by CAFOs); Charlie
Hope-D’Anieri, ‘Towns Just Turned to Dust’: How Factory Hog Farms Help Hollow
Out Rural Communities, Guardian (May 5, 2022),
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/05/us-industrial-hog-
farming-rural-towns [https://perma.cc/V84R-3YRT]; The Economic Cost of Food
Monopolies: The Hog Bosses, Food & Water Watch (May 2022),
85
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2022/05/05/food-monopolies-hog-
factory-farms [https://perma.cc/CK62-983R].
The concurrence in this case states that recognition of these harms is
merely a policy objection to the statutory immunity, but the concurrence misses
the point. The statutory immunity provided to certain animal feeding operations
is not unconstitutional because it is bad policy; it is unconstitutional because
immunizing private nuisancers from paying damages caused by their conduct is
contrary to Iowa’s legal history, Iowa’s property law, Iowa’s nuisance law, Iowa’s
precedents regarding the lawful exercise of the police power, and Iowa’s
interrelated constitutional provisions protecting private property. What other
state courts have done is immaterial to the question presented in this case.
Under Iowa law, the state may validly exercise its police powers in a manner that
“licenses no man to interfere with the lands or goods of another.” McMillen v.
Boyles, 6 Iowa (Clarke) 304, 315 (1858). But when the legislature exercises its
police powers to allow one person to profit by damaging, degrading, and
destroying the property and property rights of another, the legislature has
exceeded its constitutional authority:
[T]he exercise of police power to maintain the respective rights of
men guaranteed by the Constitution has been held to be within the
contemplation of the makers of the Constitution and permissible
under its terms, even though rights are thereby restrained and the
use of property restricted. But the end of police power is reached
when the rights of others have been protected, and when rights
are cut down in order that others may profit thereby, the limit
of police power has been exceeded, for then the guaranty of the
Constitution has been violated.
86
Des Moines Joint Stock Land Bank of Des Moines v. Nordholm, 253 N.W. 701,
727–28 (Iowa 1934) (Claussen, C.J., dissenting) (emphasis added).18
Quite simply, “the legislature or governmental agencies cannot
constitutionally confer upon individuals or private corporations, acting primarily
for their own profit, although for public benefit as well, any right to deprive
persons of the lawful enjoyment of their property.” Hyde v. Somerset Air
Serv., Inc., 61 A.2d 645, 647 (N.J. Super. Ct. Ch. Div. 1948). “The great principle
of the common law . . . so to use one’s property as not to injure others, forbids
any other application or use of the rights and powers conferred.” Balt. & P. R.
Co. v. Fifth Baptist Church, 108 U.S. 317, 331 (1883).
IV.
The Iowa Constitution provides that “[a]ll men and women . . . have certain
inalienable rights—among which are those of . . . acquiring, possessing and
protecting property.” Iowa Const. art. I, § 1. In the end, the legal question
presented in this case is a simple one: does the constitution mean what it says?
Do the men and women of this state have the constitutional right to protect their
18Noted constitutional law scholar Richard Epstein agrees with this view, explaining that
the grant of immunity from private nuisance suits is wholly inconsistent with the police power
and the constitutional plan:
The proper ends under the police power are those of the private law of nuisance,
no more and no less. . . . It is not acceptable, either politically or constitutionally,
to limit the pollution from one factory while allowing its next-door competitor to
operate free of legal restraint. It is instead necessary to make sure that differential
systems of enforcement do not result in the hidden wealth transfers that are
prohibited under the Takings Clause. The evenhanded enforcement of the
nuisance law is an essential ingredient of the proper constitutional plan.
Richard A. Epstein, The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited
Government 353 (2014).
87
property? The text of the constitution, precedent, and history say yes. The
majority says no. I respectfully dissent.
Oxley, J., joins this dissent.