Kurth v. Van Horn

LARSON, Justice.

Thomas P. Hall, a Glidden area farmer, became financially strapped and asked his landlord, Herman B. Gerdes, to help him get a loan from the defendant bank. Gerdes agreed to do so and cosigned, with Hall, a note to the bank, secured by a mortgage on farmland owned by Gerdes. Gerdes then turned the proceeds over to Hall. Shortly afterward, Gerdes died. The trustee of the Herman B. Gerdes Trust, and two beneficiaries of the Gerdes estate, sued the bank and its president, Robert Van Horn (hereinafter referred to jointly as the bank), alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.…