Actions may be brought within the times herein limited, respectively, after their causes accrue, and not afterwards, except when otherwise specially declared:
1. Penalties or forfeitures under ordinance. Those to enforce the payment of a penalty or forfeiture under an ordinance, within one year.
2. Injuries to person or reputation---relative rights---statute penalty. Those founded on injuries to the person or reputation, including injuries to relative rights, whether based on contract or tort, or for a statute penalty, within two years.
3. Against sheriff or other public officer. Those against a sheriff or other public officer for the nonpayment of money collected on execution within three years of collection.
4. Unwritten contracts---injuries to property---fraud---other actions. Those founded on unwritten contracts, those brought for injuries to property, or for relief on the ground of fraud in cases heretofore solely cognizable in a court of chancery, and all other actions not otherwise provided for in this respect, within five years, except as provided by subsections 8 and 10.
5. Written contracts---judgments of courts not of record---recovery of real property. Those founded on written contracts, or on judgments of any courts except those provided for in the next subsection, and those brought for the recovery of real property, within ten years.
6. Judgments of courts of record. Those founded on a judgment of a court of record, whether of this or of any other of the United States, or of the federal courts of the United States, within twenty years.
7. Judgment quieting title. No action shall be brought to set aside a judgment or decree quieting title to real estate unless the same shall be commenced within ten years from and after the rendition thereof.
8. Wages. Those founded on claims for wages or for a liability or penalty for failure to pay wages, within two years.
9. Malpractice. Those founded on injuries to the person or wrongful death against any physician and surgeon, osteopath, osteopathic physician and surgeon, dentist, podiatric physician, optometrist, pharmacist, chiropractor, or nurse, licensed under chapter 147, or a hospital licensed under chapter 135B, arising out of patient care, within two years after the date on which the claimant knew, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have known, or received notice in writing of the existence of, the injury or death for which damages are sought in the action, whichever of the dates occurs first, but in no event shall any action be brought more than six years after the date on which occurred the act or omission or occurrence alleged in the action to have been the cause of the injury or death unless a foreign object unintentionally left in the body caused the injury or death.
10. Secured interest in farm products. Those founded on a secured interest in farm products, within two years from the date of sale of the farm products against the secured interest of the creditor.
11. Improvements to real property. In addi- tion to limitations contained elsewhere in this section, an action arising out of the unsafe or defective condition of an improvement to real property based on tort and implied warranty and for con- tribution and indemnity, and founded on injury to property, real or personal, or injury to the person or wrongful death, shall not be brought more than fifteen years after the date on which occurred the act or omission of the defendant alleged in the action to have been the cause of the injury or death. However, this subection does not bar an action against a person solely in the person's capacity as an owner, occupant, or operator of an improve- ment to real property.
12. Sexual abuse or sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. An action for damages for injury suffered as a result of sexual abuse, as defined in section 709.1, by a counselor or therapist, as defined in section 709.15, or as a result of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, shall be brought within five years of the date the victim was last treated by the counselor or therapist.
13. Public bonds or obligations. Those founded on the cancellation, transfer, redemption, or replacement of public bonds or obligations by an issuer, trustee, transfer agent, registrar, depository, paying agent, or other agent of the public bonds or obligations, within eleven years of the cancellation, transfer, redemption, or replacement of the public bonds or obligations.
[C51, § 1659; R60, § 1075, 1865, 2740; C73, § 486, 2529; C97, § 3447; S13, § 2963-g, 3447; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, § 11007; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 614.1]
83 Acts, ch 69, § 1, 2; 86 Acts, ch 1120, § 1; 91 Acts, ch 130, § 3; 92 Acts, ch 1199, § 1; 93 Acts, ch 89, §3; 95 Acts, ch 108, §21
Referred to in § 222.82, 715B.4, 910.15
Iowa General Assembly
Search: Iowa Code 1997
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