The Des Moines Register , Monday, May 22, 1989

IOWA FAMILY AWARDED $1 MILLION IN LAWSUIT AGAINST MUSCO OFFICIAL
By PATRICK BEACH
Register Staff Writer

A New Sharon farmer, his wife and two sons have been awarded nearly $1 million in lawsuit against an officer of Musco, Inc., the nationally known Oskaloosa portable lighting company.

John Coster, his wife, Eleanor, and sons Jonathon and David had sued Joe Crookham of Oskaloosa, Musco's president and a principal owner, his partner, Myron Gordin of Oskaloosa, the First National Bank of Muscatine, and Iowa Trust and Savings Bank of Oskaloosa. The suit charged them with mishandling a trust the elder Costers set up in 1974.

The suit charged that Crookham breached his duties as trustee by using the trust's assets to back a loan for acquiring Musco, then known as the Muscatine Lighting Co., in 1976. The suit also accused Crookham of giving excessive amounts of money to John Coster in violation of trust provisions.

The Oskaloosa bank was accused of failing to correct the situation when it assumed co-trusteeship in1985. It also was charged with a conflict of interests for lending to itself as a co-trustee.

Gordin and the Muscatine bank were accused of knowingly benefiting from the improper use of the trust assets. The Muscatine County District Court jury rejected those claims, said Tom Riley, who represented the Costers in the suit, and issued a judgment of $963,234 against Crookham and the Oskaloosa bank.

"They were loaning money to themselves," said Riley, a Cedar Rapids lawyer.

The trust's assets consisted of 900 acres of farmland that John and Eleanor Coster transferred to Crookham who acted as their trustee.

Riley said the award would put his clients "back in the financial condition they were in before Crookham took over as trustee."

"At that time, there were only $435,000 in mortgages on the farms," Riley said. "And when Crookham and the bank stepped down as trustees in 1987, the debt was $1.2 million."

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