Fence Agreement Breached.

Date of decision:

The parties executed a partition line fence agreement and recorded it in the fall of 2013.  Under the agreement, the plaintiff was responsible for a portion of the fence between their farms and the defendant was also responsible for a specific portion.  The newly constructed fence was to be a "tight fence" and specifics were provided as to how the fence was to meet that requirement.  As for the defendant, the agreement not only specified the portion of fence the defendant was responsible for, but set deadlines for having the fence built to those specifications.  The defendant hired a fence builder, but never showed the agreement to the builder before leaving to winter in Arizona.  The defendant's portion of the fence was not built to specification and was not built in a timely manner.  The plaintiff sued and the trial court awarded damages for work done to bring the fence into compliance, for repair of a tile line, for reseeding and for lost rent in 2014.  On appeal, the court affirmed.  Brookview Farms, LLC v. Wennes, No. 14-1318, 2015 Iowa App. LEXIS 1159 (Iowa Ct. App. Dec. 9, 2015).

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