Messy legalities (Part 1)

By Leisa Boley Hellwarth     

Families are messy. Farming is messy. Litigation is messy. And on April 19, 2024, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a ruling in a shareholder derivative action that involved all of the above. A shareholder derivative case is a lawsuit brought by a shareholder or group of shareholders on behalf of the corporation against the corporations’ directors, officers and other third parties who breach their duties. In this matter, two brothers sued their father and brother. Let’s take a look at the decision in Hora v. Hora.

The facts section actually begins with the Hora family tree. George and Marie Hora, of Washington County, Iowa, had three children, Keith, born in 1938, and his two siblings, Kathy and Kevin. Keith married Celeste in 1959, and from 1960 to 1968, they had six children, Gregg, Brian, Dana, Kurt, Daren and Heidi.

Upon Celeste’s death in 1989, the Celeste N.… Continue reading