In this case, a corporation owned agricultural land with the defendant being the sole stockholder until 2006 when the stock was sold to a third party at sheriff’s sale. After the sale, the defendant remained on the land claiming that he was the tenant under an oral lease. In 2007, the corporation and its new owners served the defendant with a notice of termination specifying that the lease would terminate March 1, 2008. But, when March 1passed, the defendant refused to give up possession of the land. The corporation served the defendant with a notice to quit, but the defendant did not leave and the corporation filed a petition for forcible entry and detainer- the subject of the current dispute.
A hearing was held in July 2008 and the defendant continued to argue that he held an oral lease. However, the defendant could not provide any evidence of the lease’s existence. Thus, the trial court rejected all of the defendant’s arguments and ordered the defendant off the property. The defendant appealed and the Iowa Court of Appeals, once again, addressed the issues here.
The appellate court found that there was no dispute that the land had changed hands and that the new owners of the corporation had served the defendant with timely notice of termination of the farm tenancy. The corporation and its new owners had a legal right to exercise possessory control over the property. The defendant had no written lease and offered no evidence of a continuing oral lease. In the end, the court opined that “just saying a cow has three legs does not make it so.” Indian Creek Corp v. Daniels, No. 0-380/08-1740 (Iowa Ct. App., Jun. 30, 2010).