Judge rules against landowner in North Liberty sewer line dispute

JOHNSON COUNTY - A property owner who sought to block construction of a sewer line across his land, potentially delaying the construction of the Iowa City Community School District's planned Liberty High School, has lost his case.

In a ruling filed in Johnson County District Court Tuesday, Judge Christopher Bruns denied property owner Gary Weinman's request for a temporary injunction blocking the City of North Liberty from moving ahead with the sewer line project.

Weinman and his lawyers did not identify 'a single underlying claim on which there is a probability of success” in a Feb. 5 hearing, Bruns wrote.

The ruling allows North Liberty to move forward with a condemnation hearing on Weinman's property, city attorney Scott Peterson said. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday, Peterson said, and the sewer line project is on schedule.

'We're pleased with the ruling,” city administrator Ryan Heiar said. 'We're certainly open to continue to negotiate with Dr. Weinman for the necessary easements, but we do need to move forward with the project.”

Iowa City school superintendent Stephen Murley said construction on the new high school now will proceed as originally planned. If Weinman's lawsuit caused delays in the sewer line construction, Murley said, the district would have requested bids on the school's facilities separately from work on the site.

Weinman and his lawyers have not decided what to do next, said one of his lawyers, Wallace Taylor of Cedar Rapids. But Weinman said he will continue pursuing the case.

'I'm not done yet,” Weinman said. 'In my heart, I feel this is wrong.”

Weinman also was represented by Richard Pundt of Cedar Rapids.

In his 13-page ruling, Bruns sided with the city in nearly all factual and legal disputes.

Weinman's claims that the sewer line would harm two threatened species, that a less-expensive alternate route was available and that the city did not have authority to condemn his property were unconvincing or not likely to succeed, Bruns ruled.

And though a surveyor did not notify Weinman of his intent to survey the property, as is required by Iowa law, the survey was not necessary to condemn the property, Bruns wrote.

Bruns ruled there is no evidence that either the Indiana bat or the ornate box turtle actually live on Weinman's property, as Weinman claimed. If those threatened species do live on the property, they would not likely be harmed by construction of the sewer line, Bruns wrote.

'Although the doctor's counsel attempts to assert otherwise, he has clearly ‘shotgunned' this case,” Bruns wrote. 'He has vaguely asserted multiple alleged legal bases for his underlying claims, but has only addressed some of those bases in detail.”

The ruling Tuesday was on Weinman's Jan. 20 petition for a temporary injunction to stop the city's condemnation of his property. Weinman's original lawsuit seeking to permanently stop construction of the sewer line, filed on Nov. 26, has not yet been resolved. But the likelihood of that lawsuit succeeding is not high in light of Tuesday's ruling.

Kevin Caster, a Cedar Rapids attorney with experience in eminent domain cases, said last month after reviewing Weinman's case that any ruling against a request for a temporary injunction indicates a request for a permanent injunction has a low probability of success.