McReynolds v. Municipal Court of the City of Ottumwa

The majority decision acknowledges our basic rule for construction of forfeiture., statutes, applied in State v. One (1) Certain 1969 Ford Van, 191 N.W.2d 662, 666 (Iowa 1971) :

“ [I]t is penal in its nature and must be strictly construed. Nothing can be read into it that is not plainly there.”

Even more recently, in State v. Kaufman, Iowa, 201 N.W.2d 722, 723 (Iowa 1972) we said, “[Forfeitures are not favored and forfeiture statutes should be strictly construed.”

But the majority invokes the exception to the above rule, that statutes are not to be construed so strictly as to defeat the…