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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 71 / 05-1767 Filed August 10, 2007 JERRY D. LONGFELLOW, Appellant, vs. HAL SAYLER, Appellee.

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Taylor County, John D. Lloyd, Judge.

A landowner appeals a decision of the fence viewers. REVERSED AND CASE REMANDED.

Richard L. Wilson of Wilson & Spurrier, P.C., Lenox, and Richard O. McConville of Coppola, Sandre, McConville & Carroll, P.C., West Des Moines, for appellant.

Stuart D. Nielsen and Stephanie M. Nielsen of Nielsen & Nielsen, P.C., Corning, for appellee.

2 WIGGINS, Justice. A landowner and his neighbor had a dispute over an agreement to erect and maintain a partition fence between their properties. The

landowner requested the fence viewers determine whether the neighbor's fence complied with the agreement. The fence viewers determined the fence complied with the agreement. The landowner appealed the fence viewers' decision to the district court. The district court agreed with the fence viewers and entered judgment for the neighbor. On our review, we find as a matter of law the record establishes the neighbor's fence did not comply with the agreement. Therefore, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand the case for the district court to enter judgment in favor of the landowner consistent with this opinion. I. Background Facts. Jerry Longfellow and Carolyn Sayler owned adjoining parcels of land sharing a boundary fence line. Since 1955 Longfellow has operated a cattle and row crop farm on his property. Originally, there was a fence between the Longfellow and Sayler farms. However, the fence was not adequate to keep cattle from mixing between the Sayler and Longfellow operations. Due to these problems, Longfellow and Carolyn Sayler entered into a voluntary fence division agreement. Longfellow's attorney drafted the agreement. The parties signed the agreement and recorded it with the Taylor county recorder on September 30, 1977. After providing the legal description for the Longfellow and Sayler plots, the agreement defines the duties of each party. The agreement states for the common fence lying between the Longfellow and Sayler parcels, Longfellow "shall have the responsibility for the construction, maintenance and repair of the North 80 rods of such common fence" and Sayler "shall

3 have the responsibility for the construction, maintenance and repair of the South 80 rods of the common fence." The agreement also provides: that both parties are to have their portion of said fences so erected and/or repaired and maintained on or before December 31, 1977, and thereafter to so maintain the stated portions assigned to such party as per this Agreement. Under the agreement, Longfellow and Carolyn Sayler agreed that should either party bring all of their portion of the fence to a tight fence condition as defined by Section 113.20 of the 1977 Code of Iowa, that the other party hereto shall bring all of their portions of such fence to such tight fence condition within ninety days. Section 113.20 of the 1977 Code defined a tight fence. It stated: All tight partition fences shall consist of: 1. Not less than twenty-six inches of substantial woven wire on the bottom, with three strands of barbed wire with not less than thirty-six barbs of at least two points to the rod, on top, the top wire to be not less than forty-eight inches, nor more than fifty-four inches high. 2. Good substantial woven wire not less than forty-eight inches nor more than fifty-four inches high with one barbed wire of not less than thirty-six barbs of two points to the rod, not more than four inches above said woven wire. 3. Any other kind of a tight partition fence, which in the opinion of the fence viewers, is equivalent thereto. Iowa Code

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