Opinion ID: 1637538
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the Stale Uses and Reversions Act Operated to Vest Fee Simple Absolute Ownership in the Railroad in 1966.

Text: As pertaining the second certified question, Iowa Code § 614.24, as existing on July 4, 1966, provided in relevant part: No action based upon any claim arising or existing by reason of the provisions of any deed or conveyance ... providing for any reversion, reverted interests or use restrictions in and to the land therein described shall be maintained either at law or in equity in any court to recover real estate in this state or to recover or establish any interest therein or claim thereto, legal or equitable, against the holder of the record title to such real estate in possession after twenty-one years from the recording of such deed of conveyance ... unless the claimant shall, by himself, or by his attorney or agent, ... file a verified claim with the recorder of the county wherein said real estate is located within said twenty-one year period. In the event said deed was recorded ... more than twenty years prior to July 4, 1965, then said claim may be filed on or before one year after July 4, 1965.... We have previously considered the effect of this statute on reversionary interests contained in deeds conditioned on a continuing use for railway purposes. We have held in such cases that such reversionary interests created by deeds that were recorded more than twenty years prior to July 4, 1966, were extinguished if not asserted by verified claims filed with the county recorder on or before July 4, 1966. McKinley, 368 N.W.2d at 138; Chicago & N.W. Ry. v. City of Osage, 176 N.W.2d 788, 791-92 (Iowa 1970). The deed at issue in the present case was recorded more than twenty years prior to July 4, 1965. Consequently, because the holders of the reversionary interests on which plaintiffs' federal class action is based have failed to file the necessary verified claims within the time provided by section 614.24, those reversionary interests are barred from being asserted. Under Iowa law, the bar to asserting such reversionary interests is synonymous with the extinguishment of the inchoate property interests, which may no longer be asserted. McKinley, 368 N.W.2d at 138; City of Osage, 176 N.W.2d at 793. Consequently, the answer to the second certified question is yes. Section 614.24 operated to vest fee simple absolute ownership in the railroad company in 1966.