Opinion ID: 1948206
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the District Court Should Have Entered Judgment Against Snap-On for the Penalty Benefit Award Made by the Commissioner.

Text: We review the district court's decision to enter judgment in favor of Schadendorf for errors at law. Grinnell Coll. v. Osborn, 751 N.W.2d 396, 398 (Iowa 2008). The Code provides: Any party in interest may present a certified copy of an order or decision of the commissioner, from which a timely petition for judicial review has not been filed or if judicial review has been filed, which has not had execution or enforcement stayed as provided in section 17A.19, subsection 5, or an order or decision of a deputy commissioner from which a timely appeal has not been taken within the agency and which has become final by the passage of time as provided by rule and section 17A.15, or an agreement for settlement approved by the commissioner, and all papers in connection therewith, to the district court where judicial review of the agency action may be commenced. The court shall render a decree or judgment and cause the clerk to notify the parties. The decree or judgment, in the absence of a petition for judicial review or if judicial review has been commenced, in the absence of a stay of execution or enforcement of the decision or order of the workers' compensation commissioner, or in the absence of an act of any party which prevents a decision of a deputy workers' compensation commissioner from becoming final, has the same effect and in all proceedings in relation thereto is the same as though rendered in a suit duly heard and determined by the court. Iowa Code § 86.42. Snap-On does not claim that Schadendorf's request for entry of a judgment did not meet the requirements of section 86.42 at the time the district court entered the judgment on the commissioner's decision. It argues because the court should have stayed the enforcement of the judgment, the court should not have entered the judgment in the first place. This argument does not fit within the statutory scheme for the enforcement of a decision by the commissioner. When a party requesting judgment has met all the conditions of section 86.42, the district court is required to enter the judgment in favor of the party requesting judgment. Rethamel v. Havey, 679 N.W.2d 626, 628 (Iowa 2004). Therefore, the court was correct in entering the judgment as requested by Schadendorf.