Court Opinion

ID: 9691386
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 20:28:42.922022+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:18.107052
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent.
I do not believe that it was the intent of section 668.7 to require that the release contain a minimum amount of written descriptive data. Indeed, I do not believe that it is even required that the release agreement be in writing. Section 668.7 is a provision taken from the Uniform Comparative Fault Act which was designed to reject the common-law rule that a release of one joint tortfeasor releases the other tortfeasors. Issues concerning matters of form in the preparation of the release agreement are clearly outside the ambit of the legislation.
The common-law rule in question was abolished in Iowa by judicial decision in 1970. See Community School Dist. of Postville v. Gordon N. Peterson, Inc., 176 N.W.2d 169, 175 (Iowa 1970). The cited case permits the true intention of the releasing parties to be established as an issue of fact and allows extrinsic evidence to be considered for this purpose. I would continue to view the issue as one of fact under section 668.7 and permit extrinsic evidence on the intention of the parties. If this standard is applied in the present case, the broad language in the release which refers to “all other persons, firms, or corporations, known or unknown, who are, or might be claimed to be liable” presents a prima facie case that all joint tortfeasors were being released. I therefore do not agree that the county was entitled to a directed verdict.