City of Des Moines v. Iowa District Court for Polk County

NEUMAN, Justice.

The city of Des Moines has brought this original certiorari action to test the legality of a district court’s failure to enter default judgments in three civil cases involving alleged housing code violations. While we are not insensitive to the frustrating delay that prompted the city’s action, neither are we persuaded that it has met its burden of proving the court acted unlawfully. Accordingly, we annul the writ.

I. Background.

This controversy focuses on proceedings in three cases, all triable in equity, assigned to the same district court judge. Each involved the city’s…