Raymond Fuller, Jeff Fuller, Linda Curtis f/k/a Linda Fuller v. Alan Fuller and Brenda Fuller

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

No. 24-0761
Filed March 5, 2025

RAYMOND FULLER, JEFF FULLER, LINDA CURTIS f/k/a LINDA FULLER,
Plaintiffs-Appellants,

vs.

ALAN FULLER and BRENDA FULLER,
Defendants-Appellees.
________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Buchanan County, John J. Sullivan,

Judge.

Siblings appeal from the denial of their petition seeking specific

performance in the form of forced sale of a parcel in which they have an interest

and right of first refusal. AFFIRMED.

Thomas C. Verhulst of Beecher, Field, Walker, Morris, Hoffman &

Johnson, P.C., Waterloo, for appellants.

Kevin J. Caster and Eric P. Martin of Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, Cedar

Rapids, for appellees.

Heard by Ahlers, P.J., and Badding and Buller, JJ.
2

BULLER, Judge.

This family-farm real-estate dispute concerns a petition filed by three

siblings—Raymond Fuller, Linda Curtis, and Jeff Fuller—seeking to compel their

brother Alan Fuller and his wife Brenda Fuller to specifically perform by forcing

Alan and Brenda to sell the other siblings a parcel in which the siblings have an

interest. The siblings allege Alan violated their right of first refusal. The district

court denied specific performance, reasoning in part that the siblings were owed

no remedy because the siblings’ interest had returned to status quo before the

petition was filed. On our de novo review, we affirm.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings

Alan and his siblings’ parents, Ernest and Bonnie Fuller, owned

approximately 217 acres of Buchanan County farmland as tenants in common. In

1982, Ernest executed a will providing that he and Bonnie’s four children—Alan

and his siblings—would each receive a one-fourth interest in his one-half interest

of the farmland, subject to a life estate granted to Bonnie. Ernest died in 2002,

and his interest was transferred in equal shares to the children, subject to Bonnie’s

life estate.

In 2007, Bonnie executed a will providing that each of the four children

would receive a one-fourth interest in her one-half interest of the farmland, with the

following additional language:

None of my children shall sell his or her share of any farm real
estate inherited herein without first offering such property to my other
living children. If an acceptable offer has been received from a third
party, any of my children shall have the right to match the offer after
being given written notice of such offer. In the event two of my
children are willing to match the acceptable offer from any third party,
3

the one willing to pay the highest price in excess of the acceptable
offer shall purchase the property.

Bonnie died in 2015 and, after probate, a court officer’s deed recorded the transfer

of Bonnie’s half interest to the four children in equal shares.

The following year, Alan had a disagreement with the other siblings related

to farming the land. As one of the siblings put it, “to keep peace in the family,”

everyone agreed that Alan would receive his one-fourth share as a separate

parcel. Alan and his siblings entered into a Family Settlement Agreement (FSA)

carving out a 54.33 acre parcel of land—known in these proceedings as

“Parcel C”—for Alan. The FSA also contained additional language, requested by

Alan:

The parties understand and agree that the Third Article of the
Last Will and Testament of Bonnie J. Fuller contains provisions
restricting the sale of farm real estate received from her estate by her
children without first offering such property to other living children.
Nothing in this agreement shall in any way change or alter the effect
that said provisions may have on this real estate.

And the quitclaim claim deed transferring Parcel C from the other three siblings to

Alan contained the following provision:

The grantee herein is subject to the restrictions on sale as
stated in the Last Will and Testament of Bonnie J. Fuller dated
September 11, 2007, and admitted to Probate in Buchanan County,
Iowa District Court.

In 2019, Alan and his wife completed a land-swap transaction with an

adjoining landowner that included the transfer of Parcel C and various other

exchanges. Alan did not give written notice of the land-swap to his siblings.

According to Alan, he forgot about the restriction and felt “sick to [his] stomach”

when he learned or remembered years later.
4

In 2021, the adjoining landowner sought a title opinion in an unrelated

transaction and discovered the contested ownership issue, which led to all three

siblings learning of the land-swap. They then informed Alan they were not

disclaiming their right of first refusal and instead wished to exercise it. Alan and

his wife reversed a portion1 of the land-swap with the adjoining landowner a few

months later, transferring Parcel C back to Alan and his wife. And the other three

siblings filed a lawsuit seeking to enforce their claimed right of first refusal by

specific performance, seeking to compel Alan and his wife to sell them Parcel C

for a value they determined based on an appraisal and declarations of value.

Following a contested bench trial, the district court made detailed findings

of fact and denied the petition for specific performance. The court reasoned that

forcing the sale of Parcel C was not “an appropriate or equitable remedy under the

facts of this case.” The court observed that underlying estate planning may have

been “dubious.” And the court suggested that, while perhaps a stronger claim

could be made for specific performance as to the half-interest that passed solely

under Bonnie’s will (not the portion she held in life estate after Ernest’s death), the

court would have denied specific performance requiring conveyance of that

interest as well, because reversing the land swap had returned the parties to the

status quo and equity did not offer or required any other remedy.

The siblings appeal.

1 The siblings do not claim any interest in the other parcels at issue in the swap—

only Parcel C.
5

II. Standard of Review

We review equitable cases, including petitions for specific performance, de

novo. See Breitbach v. Christenson, 541 N.W.2d 840, 843 (Iowa 1995). We give

weight to the fact-findings of the district court, especially when it comes to

credibility and believability. Iowa R. App. P. 6.904(3)(g). But we are not bound by

those findings. Id.

III. Discussion

In teeing up the issues for review in their appellate briefing, the parties set

forth a number of legal questions about the scope of the right-of-first-refusal

restriction; interactions between the wills, deeds, and FSA, and how these would

play out in practice; and valuation of different interests in Parcel C. But we think

the issue properly before us is quite a bit narrower—we only need to decide

whether there was any injury to the siblings for which specific performance

supplies an equitable remedy. Anything beyond that would be an advisory opinion,

and we are not in the business of issuing those. See Schmidt v. State, 909 N.W.2d

778, 800 (Iowa 2018).

Even if we assume without deciding that the siblings are correct in all their

legal interpretations of the wills, deeds, and the FSA as to the scope and quality of

their interest in Parcel C, to what remedy are they entitled? Under controlling Iowa

case law, they are only entitled to return to the “status quo.” Myers v. Lovetinsky,

189 N.W.2d 571, 576 (Iowa 1971). In a situation where “the landlord has already

conveyed” the parcel at issue, a return to the status quo is accomplished “by

requiring the purchaser to reconvey those premises to the landlord.” Id. That was

accomplished here with the reversal of the land-swap with the adjoining landowner
6

and the return of Parcel C to Alan and his wife—all of which took place before the

petition was filed.

The siblings try to distance this case from Myers and related cases by

pointing out that the Myers right-of-first-refusal was found in a lease. But we think

this is immaterial. The dispute is about the underlying real estate and the remedy

involves return of the real estate to the status quo. And the siblings have not cited

to us, nor have we found on our own, any case that draws a distinction in remedy

based on how the right-of-first-refusal was reduced to writing. We find Myers

controls.

The siblings also make some suggestion that, because Alan and his wife

swapped Parcel C as part of a larger transaction, “something suspicious and

deceptive occurred.” While we can agree it’s interesting that the adjoining

landowner invoked his right against self-incrimination when questioned about the

land’s value, this curious testimony does not entitle the siblings to any additional

remedy under our case law. In short, whether something unusual happened in the

broader transaction has no impact on whether the siblings have received the only

remedy to which they are entitled—a return to the status quo.

Last, even setting aside Myers and its on-point analysis, we agree with the

district court on the broader question of whether specific performance would be

appropriate here. “The decision to grant specific performance is within our sound

discretion; it is not to be granted as a matter of right. It is to be granted only in

extraordinary, unusual cases in which irreparable harm will result in its absence,

not as a matter of grace.” Breitbach, 541 N.W.2d at 843 (internal citations omitted).

Like the district court, we find that forcing an immediate sale of Parcel C from Alan
7

and his wife to the siblings is not equitable under this standard. While real-estate

claims are generally more amenable to specific performance than other causes of

action, the bar for specific performance remains high. See id. On our review, we

discern no irreparable harm to the siblings now that Alan and his wife have

reversed the land-swap and Parcel C has been returned to their ownership: as

Linda agreed in her sworn trial testimony, the siblings’ “legal position today is

exactly the same as it was before the [land-swap] transaction.”2 And we share the

district court’s observation that the lack of fixed and definite terms to support a

forced sale also weighs in favor of denying specific performance. See Myers, 189

N.W.2d at 576 (noting specific performance is unavailable “unless the terms of the

option, including the price, are definite, or unless a means is provided for fixing the

terms definitely”).

AFFIRMED.

2 We recognize some future dispute may ensue between Alan and his siblings over

the scope of each party’s interest and the land’s true value, but those questions
are unnecessary to disposition of this appeal. Our only concern is whether the
interests returned to the status quo after reversal of the land-swap, and we
conclude they did.