Court Opinion

ID: 9722180
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:19:06.790625+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:31.186144
License: Public Domain

UHLENHOPP, Justice
(dissenting).
At the time of these events service of notice on a nonresident motorist was accomplished by filing with the commissioner of public safety a copy of the original notice and by mailing to the motorist a notification of such filing. Code 1973, § 321.501. Plaintiff established beyond question that he did both of those things. He filed in district court (1) the commissioner’s own certificate that the original notice had been filed and (2) the motorist’s own acknowledgment that the notification of filing had been received.
The nonresident motorist- objects however that under § 321.505 the return of service was defective. But the service of notice is the crucial step. The return merely reports what the service was. If the service is proper but the return does not fully or accurately report the service, the return can be amended or supplemented to speak the truth. 62 Am.Jur.2d Process § 172 at 953; 72 C.J.S. Process § 116 at p. 1181. This court has said, “It is the fact of service that confers jurisdiction, not the return of service merely.” Mintle v. Sylvester, 197 Iowa 424, 426, 197 N.W. 305, 306.
We have long had a statute permitting officers to make amended returns of service if a return is not made or is incorrectly made. Code 1975, § 617.2. But this court has held, “Independent of the statute, the power to permit amendments is inherent in the courts and exists at common law.” Mintle v. Sylvester, supra, at 426, 197 N.W. at 306. So here, the trial court had inherent power to permit plaintiff to amend by adding to the commissioner’s certificate and the motorist’s receipt an amended return conforming to the formal requirements of § 321.505. The trial court should have permitted plaintiff to make such an amendment within a specified time, in view of the documents before the court at the hearing showing that service had in fact been accomplished under § 321.501.
I would reverse.
LeGRAND, McCORMICK and HARRIS, JJ., join this dissent.