Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg's kids sue his widow over alleged mishandling of trust
Published in Baseball
CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg’s children have sued his widow for alleged mishandling of his trust.
In the lawsuit, Justin Sandberg and Lindsey Sandberg accused their stepmother, Margaret Sandberg, of going against their father’s wishes by trying to shift control of the trust that oversees his name, image and likeness rights to her, her son and the family’s financial adviser.
This change would destroy the “collaborative arrangement” Sandberg set up between his second wife and biological children, the suit filed in April in Lake County Circuit Court said. The dispute was first reported Wednesday by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Norm Finkel and Adam Hirsch, attorneys representing the siblings, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Margaret Sandberg couldn’t be reached for comment.
Ryne Sandberg, often referred to as “Ryno,” is perhaps best known for the June 23, 1984, “Sandberg Game,” where he hit a pair of thrilling home runs in the ninth and 10th innings. He won nine Gold Glove and seven Silver Slugger awards, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. He also went on to have a career as a manager.
He died last July at age 65 from metastatic prostate cancer. The baseball legend disclosed the diagnosis the year prior, and while he at one point went into remission, the cancer returned and spread to other organs.
Before his death, Ryne Sandberg left “clear instructions” that Margaret, Justin and Lindsey Sandberg would act as equal co-trustees over his name, image and likeness rights, the lawsuit said. He married Margaret Koehnemann in 1995 after divorcing his first wife, Cindy.
“It would disappoint me if they were unable to make decisions on my (name, image and likeness) in a positive and collaborative manner,” he wrote in the trust, the lawsuit said. “It is also important to me to have any project reflect positively on my legacy and my entire family.”
However, after his death, the lawsuit accuses his widow of ignoring the siblings and refusing to sign documents to open a new, separate bank account for the trust. It said she has refused to establish the trust, a “direct contravention of Ryne’s wishes.”
Instead, it said Margaret Sandberg produced a note her husband allegedly wrote on July 16, less than two weeks before his death. The note purported to amend the trust and add his stepson and the family’s financial adviser as trustees, the suit said.
The lawsuit included a copy of the short, signed note where Ryne Sandberg allegedly wrote “N.I.L” at the top and “majority rules” at the bottom with a list of the five names on the new committee.
The suit argues that the note isn’t “legally enforceable” because it wasn’t delivered to the siblings prior to their father’s death, as required by the trust. It also said their father lacked the “capacity” with his deteriorating medical state to make such a change.
Justin and Lindsey Sandberg visited their father in the weeks leading up to his death, and said he was often “heavily sedated” and in “significant pain,” according to the lawsuit. He was admitted to hospice on July 20.
It alleged that on the same day Ryne Sandberg supposedly wrote the note, his daughter heard him screaming in pain from his driveway. He also had lapses in short-term memory before his death, the suit said.
The siblings asked the court in the suit to declare that the note isn’t a “valid or enforceable amendment” to the trust, and to compel their stepmother to create the trust.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 31.
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