Iowa’s football season does not begin until Aug. 31, but the Hawkeyes’ head coach already has his first victory of 2019.
Kirk Ferentz and his wife, Mary, have been ruled victors by an Iowa City judge in an ongoing land dispute with the couples’ neighbors.
The Saga of Saddle Club Road (as it was just dubbed right this very second) began way back in 1999, shortly after Kirk was named Iowa’s head coach and built a $1.2 million home on the road, north of Iowa City. Later that year, John and Ann Marie Buatti moved into a property adjacent to the Ferentzes and proposed subdividing their property for development as well as surfacing the gravel road -- a plan which the Ferentzes opposed for privacy reasons.
In 2001, according to the Iowa City Gazette, the Ferentzes joined an agreement to form a homeowners association, and the suit, originally filed back in 2016, alleged in part that the Ferentzes did not live up to that 2001 deal. The plaintiffs, which includes three parties in addition to the Buattis, also complained the Ferentzes’ landscaping interfered with travel on Saddle Club Road.
However, the judge ruled that “an agreement to agree in the future” was not an enforceable breach of contract, and thus the Ferentzes do not owe $9,600 to their neighbors.
The Saga of Saddle Club Road is not done, though. The plaintiffs have filed another suit in Johnson County, Iowa, which is not slated to begin until June 9, 2020.