Van Donselaar v. Van Donselaar

This case presents an appeal from a consent decree and judgment, entered upon an oral agreement of the parties reached in open court. The trial of the action commenced on August 6,1956. On August 8,1956, after what the defendants Sioux City Industrial Development Corporation and Dan Conley in their brief and argument refer to as a “partial” trial, negotiations were entered into resulting in what the parties at the time thought was a settlement of the controversy. No shorthand record was made of the oral agreements reached; but a decree was dictated into the record by one of the attorneys…