Who owns the name of Exile's Ruthie beer? Iowa Supreme Court lets lawsuit proceed
The Iowa Supreme Court won't intervene in the years-long dispute over the name of one of Iowa's most popular locally brewed beers.
Exile Brewing Co., maker of Ruthie lager, has been in court since 2020 defending itself against claims from the family of the beer's namesake, the famous Des Moines bartender Ruth Bisignano. She and her husband both died long before Exile opened in downtown Des Moines brewery and restaurant in 2012, but her husband's nephew sued the company on behalf of her estate, saying Exile had misappropriated her name, likeness and trademark, among other claims.
The case has resulted in extensive litigation in state and, more recently, federal court. While the main lawsuit was ongoing, Exile separately argued that the Iowa probate court had wrongly allowed the nephew, Fred Huntsman, to reopen his uncle and aunts' estates. The probate court, however, ruled Exile had no right to intervene.
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Friday's unanimous decision in Exile's appeal of that case, written by Justice Matthew McDermott, sides with the probate court. The brewing company is in no way a beneficiary of the estates, McDermott wrote, but rather is a potential debtor, and must argue in the related civil lawsuit whether it actually owes anything to Bisignano's estate.
"The probate court didn’t rule that Huntsman inherited Ruth’s intellectual property rights," McDermott wrote. "Exile is free to raise in the civil lawsuit whether there are any name, image, and likeness rights and whether any such rights are inheritable."
The probate court had also ruled that, even if Exile were entitled to intervene, Huntsman had a solid legal basis to seek to reopen the estates. Because the Supreme Court affirmed on the question of standing, it did not address the merits of the estates' reopening.
"We will not turn the probate court’s simple reopening of the estates into a second litigation over whether or to whom the potential debt is owed where Exile has no other connection to the estates," McDermott wrote.
The court did side with Exile on one point, affirming the probate court's ruling that the estates were not entitled to force the company to pay their attorney fees.
The original lawsuit, meanwhile, remains pending in federal court, with a trial date set for January 2024.
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Key to the dispute is whether Exile violated any rights when it named its beer in 2012, packaging it with artwork showing Bisignano performing her famed trick of pouring two beers balanced on her ample chest. Bisignano died in 1993, followed by her husband three years later. Exile claims it searched and found no children, no trusts in her name, and no other products using her name or likeness before choosing the name for its beer. The company has held a federal trademark for the name since 2021.
Although Friday's ruling is a setback for Exile, the decision makes clear that the federal litigation should be judged entirely separately from the narrow question of the probate estate.
"We advance no views and take no position on the existence or inheritability of Ruth’s name, image, and likeness rights," McDermott wrote.
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Attorneys for Exile did not respond to messages Friday seeking comment. Attorney Scott Wadding, representing the estates, said his clients were pleased with the decision.
"We look forward to the opportunity to present this chapter of Ruthie’s story at trial in January," Wadding said in an email.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Supreme Court lets Ruthie beer naming lawsuit continue
