In The Matter of The Estate of Herman Carl Stille

── In The Matter of The Estate of Herman Carl Stille ── Court: Supreme Court of Iowa Date: May 01, 2026 Category: General In the Iowa Supreme Court No. 25–1084 Submitted February 18, 2026—Filed May 1, 2026 In the matter of the Estate of Herman Carl Stille, deceased. Mayo Clinic–Rochester, Appellant, vs. Floyd County Medical Center, Appellee. Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Chickasaw County, Richard D. Stochl, judge. A contingent beneficiary appeals the district court judgment upholding a testator’s charitable bequest to his local hospital. Affirmed. Waterman, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which all participating justices joined. Mansfield, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. Eric L. Maassen (argued) and Harper F. Brown of Foley & Lardner LLP, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Max E. Kirk of Ball Kirk & Holm, P.C., Waterloo, for appellant. Jennifer Lindberg (argued), Stephanie A. Koltookian, and Cassandra Alesch of Brown, Winick, Graves, Gross and Baskerville, P.L.C., Des Moines, for appellee.  2 Waterman, Justice. In this appeal, we must decide whether a contingent beneficiary who cannot take under the will due to the nonoccurrence of a condition nevertheless has standing to challenge a conditional gift to another charity. Applying our longstanding precedent, we answer no to that question. Herman Stille’s will bequeathed over $10 million to his local hospital, the Floyd County Medical Center (FCMC), for the purpose of establishing an oncology center to serve local residents. His will also contained a condition that if FCMC merged with a corporate hospital group, then the gift would go to the Mayo Clinic (Mayo) for Alzheimer’s research. FCMC has remained independent and stands ready to establish an oncology center that would satisfy five out of six specifications in the will. But there was a problem Stille did not foresee: it is impossible for FCMC to provide radiation treatment (one of the specifications in the will). Mayo sued seeking a ruling that the gift to FCMC failed. FCMC challenged Mayo’s standing to contest the gift because it is undisputed that FCMC remains independent. The district court, after a bench trial, rejected Mayo’s challenge on the merits. Mayo appealed, and we retained the case. On our de novo review, for the reasons explained below, we hold that Mayo lacks standing to contest the bequest to FCMC. On that basis, we affirm the judgment in favor of FCMC. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. In early September of 2020, Stille died at his home in Nashua, Iowa. He was ninety-four. He had been a cattle farmer and factory worker before his retirement. For over ten years he had received medical care at FCMC in Charles City. During his lifetime, Stille had been the largest donor to FCMC’s charitable foundation. Stille had also received medical care at Mayo in Rochester,  3 Minnesota, and he had made financial contributions to Mayo’s charitable foundation. His most recent gift to Mayo occurred in January 2017, but because he was dissatisfied with the care that he received there, he stopped donating to Mayo and his subsequent gifts during his lifetime went to FCMC alone, including a $20,000 donation to FCMC’s foundation in December 2017 after he executed his final will in August of that year. Stille had never married, and he had no children, living siblings, or other identified heirs. He left behind an estate valued at about $10.9 million, primarily in farmland. Stille’s will made several small charitable bequests. Then, in the fifth paragraph, it disposed of the remainder of his property, stating: FIFTH: I give, devise, and bequeath to the F