Court Opinion

ID: 9665164
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:42:03.063838+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:13.555674
License: Public Domain

HARRIS, Justice
(dissenting).
I cannot agree that the amount in controversy on this appeal is $3000 or more. Iowa rule of appellate procedure 3 requires that “no appeal shall be taken in any case, not originally tried as a small claim, where the amount in controversy, as shown by the pleadings, is less than three thousand dol-lars_” Iowa R.App.P. 3. The plaintiff’s petition sought only $1596.61. As we have previously held, the amount of a plaintiff’s claim may not be aggregated with a defendant’s counterclaim in an attempt to meet our jurisdictional amount requirement, if neither alone is sufficient to confer jurisdiction. Bridal Publications, Inc. v. Richardson, 229 N.W.2d 771, 774 (Iowa 1975).
On these facts, neither the defendant’s $2500.00 counterclaim nor the plaintiff’s $1596.61 claim would alone be sufficient to satisfy our jurisdictional minimum. The counterclaim should not be considered at all. Defendant does not appeal from the dismissal of her counterclaim. She asks, in addition to a reversal of plaintiff’s judgment against her, only for assessment of a penalty of “not less than $100 nor more than $1000, ... costs of the action and ... reasonable attorney fees.”
This court has said that the appropriate test for determining whether the requisite jurisdictional amount is controverted is “whether the trial court could have entered judgment against any party for more than the jurisdictional minimum amount.” Northwest Bank & Trust Co. v. Gutshall, 274 N.W.2d 713, 716 (Iowa 1979), overruled on other grounds, IPALCO Employees Credit Union v. Culver, 309 N.W.2d 484 (Iowa 1981); Benttine v. Jenkins Truck Lines, Inc., 182 N.W.2d 374 (Iowa 1970). In determining the amount in controversy, the pleadings are determinative. Bridal *873Publications, Inc., 229 N.W.2d at 774; Liberty Loan Corp. of Dubuque v. Fassbinder, 176 N.W.2d 158, 159 (Iowa 1970). Costs of an action are not considered in determining the jurisdictional amount where they “are merely incidental to the action [and] are not shown by the plead-ings_” Bridal Publications, Inc., 229 N.W.2d at 774.
The majority holds that the jurisdictional amount can be reached by speculating that unspecified attorney fees might raise the stakes to $3000. See Northwest Bank & Trust Co., 274 N.W.2d at 716 (attorney fees sought under the Iowa consumer code which could be computed from the pleadings were considered under rule of appellate procedure 3).
The majority in this case cannot, except by pure speculation wholly outside the pleadings, say what the fees might be in this case. The lesson seems to be that any demand for reasonable attorney fees can satisfy the jurisdictional amount required under rule 3. I do not think such an unspecified demand should render rule 3 meaningless.
The pleadings here simply do not show that the amount in controversy amounts to $3000. We lack jurisdiction for the appeal and should dismiss it.