Court Opinion

ID: 9670190
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:16:29.714476+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:02.947886
License: Public Domain

UHLENHOPP, Justice
(dissenting).
I. I have endeavored to reach the same result as the court majority but am unable to do so because of rules 87 and 49(a) of our Rules of Civil Procedure. The original notice did not tell the Holmeses they had to “defend.” On the contrary, it informed them as one alternative that they could serve and file an “appearance.” Yet rule 87 states:
An appearance without motion or pleading shall have the effect only of submitting to the jurisdiction. The court shall have no power to treat such appearance as sufficient to delay or prevent a default or any other order which would be made in absence thereof, or of timely pleading. (Emphasis added.)
Rule 49(a), formerly numbered rule 50, uses the imperative “shall.” An original notice shall contain the time within which the defendant must appear “and defend” and shall notify the defendant that if he fails “to do so” judgment will be rendered against him. Without telling them to defend, this original notice required the Holmeses to serve and file an “appearance, motion or pleading.” (Emphasis added.) Because of rule 87, however, serving and filing an appearance is not sufficient to prevent default. That indeed is the very reason the words “and defend” are in rule 49(a). I do not think that giving the alternative of appearing and omitting the requirement of defending constitute a mere irregularity. Informing the defendant in an original notice of what he is required to do constitutes the heart of the message.
*36II. The court majority holds nevertheless that since the Holmeses did not appear, giving the alternative of appearing and omitting the requirement of defending are not prejudicial. I think this reverses the parties’ roles in the commencement of actions. A defendant is only required to appear — and then defend — if served with a valid notice in the first place. To hold otherwise means, essentially, that an invalid notice gives a court jurisdiction.
In the original suit the district court purported to adjudicate foreclosure. But a court can adjudicate only when it has jurisdiction, and a court’s jurisdiction must be invoked in accordance with its rules.
The Holmeses did not seek to invoke the district court’s jurisdiction in the foreclosure suit; the bank did so, and is now claiming the benefits of the purported foreclosure decree. Since the bank omitted the essential words in the notice, it should not be able to point the finger at the Holmeses. The suitor who invokes a court’s jurisdiction is the one responsible for commencing suit in compliance with the rules. White v. O’Neil, 164 N.W.2d 79, 81 (Iowa 1969) (“Appellants argue that the omission of these salutation clauses did not mislead, deceive, nor prejudice the defendant, and in this particular case we would agree. Nevertheless, we have consistently held a showing of no prejudice will not avoid the application of rule 50.”).
I would reverse.
REYNOLDSON, C. J., LeGRAND, and ALLBEE, JJ., join in this dissent.