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Case No. 17-1129

In the Matter of the Teresa Kasparbauer Revocable Living Trust

Marie Eischeid, Marguerite Nielsen, Teresa Smith, Annette Firkus, Kathleen Kasparbauer, and Mary Smith, Defendants-Appellants

Attorney for Appellants

R. Scott Rhinehart

Attorney for Appellees

James R. VanDyke

Aaron W. Ahrendsen

Court of Appeals

Court of Appeals Opinion

Opinion Number:
17-1129
Date Published:
Dec 05, 2018
Summary

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Carroll County, Gary L. McMinimee, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Danilson, C.J., and Potterfield and Doyle, JJ.  Opinion by Potterfield, J.  (11 pages)

            The six named appellants are siblings and beneficiaries of their deceased mother’s trust—the Teresa Kasparbauer Revocable Living Trust.  In a previous action, three of Teresa Kasparbauer’s grandchildren—the children of a seventh sibling, Shirley Kerber—sued the six siblings for a 1/7 share of the trust.  The district court awarded them the share, and we affirmed.  Here, the trust and siblings argue: (1) the trust’s due process rights were violated because the trust was not a named party and did not have notice of the first action, (2) the statute of limitations in Iowa Code section 633A.3108 (2017) prevents the grandchildren from bringing the second action, (3) the district court violated the constitutional rights of the trust when it granted the grandchildren’s motion for partial summary judgment, and (4) the doctrine of collateral estoppel and res judicata prevents the grandchildren from raising claims against the trust that they initially raised against the siblings in the first action.  OPINION HOLDS: Having considered each of the trust and sibling’s claims insofar as we could ascertain they were properly preserved for our review and supported by legal authority, we find no error with the district court’s ruling granting the grandchildren’s motion for partial summary judgment and denying the sibling’s motion for summary judgment.  We affirm.

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