St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church v. City of Webster City

STREIT, Justice.

Some mistakes cannot stay buried. In 1978, during Webster City’s water main installation project, a city contractor sev ered and then negligently reconnected St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church’s gravity-flow sewer line. Twenty-seven years later, sewage backed up into the church. St. Paul’s brought a suit against the City to recover damages. The jury found in favor of St. Paul’s, determining the water main installation project was not an “improvement to real property” under Iowa Code section 614.1(11) (2003). The district court granted the City’s motion for judgment…