By all reports Frank Steffes ruled his family with iron determination. Mr. Steffes, an Iowa farmer, and his wife Cordelia had seven children between them, and he continued to “run the show” (as the courts later said) even after they were all adults.

After their son Alden married Sharon in 1972, the elder Steffes’ began turning the farm operation over to the younger generation. One parcel was sold to the newlyweds on favorable terms, and Alden and Sharon became the primary operators of the family farm. None of the other children was interested in farming, though several continued to live in the vicinity. After Frank Steffes died in 1982 Cordelia Steffes continued to live on the farm property, and Alden helped her with her finances and farmed land still in her name.

Over the next several years Cordelia Steffes continued to transfer property to Alden, until by 1996 he had acquired most of the family’s property. He and Sharon had also bought other, neighboring farms, and had lived frugally; their net worth was about four million dollars.

After Alden began to behave oddly in 1997, Sharon filed for divorce. The property division was hotly contested, but by the end of the proceedings about 40% of the couple’s assets, including several farm properties, had been awarded to her.

About that time Steffes family members began to insist that most of the couple’s assets really belonged to Cordelia Steffes, and should be held for the benefit of the other children. Three siblings recalled a conversation between their father Frank and Sharon shortly before the 1972 wedding, in which Sharon insisted that she was not interested in acquiring Steffes family property. Frank, or perhaps Cordelia, had called out “write it down” and some kind of note had been produced for Sharon to sign—though apparently no one could locate the note at this late date, and Sharon denied ever having had the conversation.

The Steffes family brought suit first against Alden (whose properties were mostly returned to family control as a result) and then against Sharon. The Iowa trial court ruled that Sharon held the farm properties pursuant to an oral trust agreement with Frank and Cordelia Steffes, and ordered her to return them to family control.

The Iowa Court of Appeals disagreed. Noting that Sharon Steffes had not been involved in her mother-in-law’s business affairs, and therefore could not be said to have had any special opportunity to take advantage of her, the appellate court declined to order the return of farmland. Besides, noted the court, Cordelia had not reported the properties as belonging to Frank when he died, and another son’s attempt to assert an interest in the course of the divorce had been denied. Levis v. Steffes, January 19, 2006.

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