Court Opinion

ID: 9701990
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:47:59.954066+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:31.906828
License: Public Domain

HARRIS, Senior Judge
(dissenting).
As the majority concedes, Shawn is expressly prohibited by Iowa Code section 643.2 from joining his conversion, negligence, or breach-of-contract claims with his replevin action. The statutory prohibition is not imposed flippantly. Replevin, derived from one of the common law’s most ancient remedies, is deliberately narrowed in order to better serve its limited purpose of readily restoring property to the one entitled to its immediate possession. This special purpose could be frustrated if parties fell into other, even related, controversies. It seems clear, and again the majority does not contend otherwise, that the replevin action was dead on arrival at the courthouse.
The majority preserves the improperly joined claims on the basis of notice pleading. Although I continue to strongly welcome the notice pleading reform, I am convinced the majority carries it too far. The majority reaches its holding by disregarding Shawn’s purpose in seeking this special remedy. He insisted in district *11court, in his appellate brief, and even on oral submission of the appeal, that he pursues a replevin remedy. I cannot agree to ignore him and, on the basis of notice pleading, find him a better lawsuit. When the replevin action falls, as it is agreed it must, any improperly attached claims fall with it. I think the district court was correct in so holding.
I would affirm.