GPC denied Motion for Summary Judgment on its prescriptive easement defense.

Ruling on Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment and Plaintiffs’ Cross-Motion for Partial Summary Judgment.  Iowa District Court. May 9, 2018.

On December 29, 2017, Defendant Grain Processing Corporation (“GPC”) filed its Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiffs, the Freeman Class, resisted and filed their own Cross-Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on February 19, 2018. In brief, GPC asserts that Plaintiffs’ claims of nuisance, negligence, and trespass must fail as a matter of law because GPC has acquired a prescriptive easement to emit particulate matter onto the Plaintiffs’ properties. Even if Plaintiffs can successfully prove the claims they allege, GPC contends that its prescriptive easement is a conclusive defense and bars a judgment of liability against it. Plaintiffs assert that GPC has failed to fulfill the elements of a prescriptive easement and, in any event, argue that prescriptive easements to emit particulate matter into the air, like the one claimed by GPC, are void as a matter of Iowa public policy. Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek partial summary judgment on GPC’s affirmative defense and contend that GPC’s claim of a prescriptive easement must fail as a matter of law. 

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For more information on the case, go to Grain Processing Corporation Class Action Lawsuit.