Opinion ID: 1987761
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the Faulty Inspection Reports Were a Cause of Injury to the Vogans.

Text: The court of appeals determined that Hayes Appraisal did not cause any damage to the Vogans by reason of their faulty progress reports. That court found that the periodic completion reports submitted by Hayes Appraisal were only for purposes of disbursement of the initial $170,000 construction loan and did not pertain to the additional funds that the Vogans deposited with the bank for periodic disbursement to the contractor. The court of appeals concluded that the bank had already distributed the original $170,000 to the contractor prior to receiving the March 1990 periodic progress reports from Hayes Appraisal that were deemed to be erroneous. Susan Vogan prepared a spreadsheet, admitted into evidence, that showed both debits and credits on the Vogans' construction account, including the monies added to the original $170,000. The Vogans testified that based on this analysis the bank disbursed a portion of the additional funds raised by the Vogans to cover cost overruns based on the March 1990 progress reports showing that the project was ninety percent completed. Questions of proximate cause are ordinarily questions of fact that, only in exceptional cases, may be taken from the jury and decided as a matter of law. Iowa R.App. P. 14(f)(10); Boham v. City of Sioux City, 567 N.W.2d 431, 435 (Iowa 1997); Johnson v. Junkmann, 395 N.W.2d 862, 864 (Iowa 1986). We believe the facts that we have just detailed would permit the jury to find that the purpose of Hayes Appraisal's reports on the progress of the work was to assist the bank in disbursing all funds on deposit that were intended for application to the Vogans' home construction. Consequently, although the initial $170,000 construction loan might have been disbursed prior to the faulty completion estimate, the erroneous reporting of the project's completion in March 1990 caused the bank to disburse other funds of the Vogans that would have been retained had the report been accurate. Consequently, we disagree with the conclusion of the court of appeals that the jury could not have found that Hayes Appraisal's faulty progress report caused any injury to the Vogans.