Iowa Department of Transportation v. Read

REES, Justice.

This is an appeal by the Iowa Department of Transportation, the successor to the Iowa State Highway Commission, from an order and ruling of the trial court sustaining defendants’ motion for summary judgment. As the result of our conclusion that there was a factual dispute involving a material issue in the case, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

We set out the chronology of events leading to this appeal in order to provide a backdrop for this opinion.

The case began on June 7, 1973 when the Iowa State Highway Commission, now Iowa Department of Transportation, condemned…