{"id":716448,"date":"2026-06-03T18:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T18:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/716448\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T18:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T18:42:20","slug":"late-cubs-hall-of-famer-ryne-sandbergs-family-embroiled-in-lawsuit-over-handling-of-his-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/716448\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg’s family embroiled in lawsuit over handling of his trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

The late Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg\u2019s children are suing his widow over alleged violations of his trust.<\/p>\n

Ryne Sandberg, a Hall of Famer who was known as \u201cRyno\u201d and may be best remembered for his iconic performance on June 23, 1984 aka the \u201cSandberg Game,\u201d died last summer<\/a> at age 65 of metastatic prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

In a civil lawsuit filed in Lake County district court, Ryne Sandberg\u2019s son Justin and daughter Lindsey from his first marriage accused his second wife, Margaret Sandberg, of trying to shift control of his name, image and likeness to his stepson and the family financial advisor shortly before he passed away.<\/p>\n

Before his death, Sandberg penned a document that would establish a publicity rights trust after his death to control his name, image and likeness. Justin Sandberg, Lindsey Sandberg Newton and Margaret Sandberg were named as trustees.<\/p>\n

But Margaret Sandberg never responded to her stepchildren when they tried to set up the trust, and it was never created, in what Justin Sandberg and Lindsey Sandberg Newton are calling a \u201cdirect contravention\u201d to their dad\u2019s wishes, according to the complaint, first filed in April.<\/p>\n

After divorcing his first wife Cindy, Sandberg married Margaret Koehnemann in August 1995.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s financial advisors also tried twice to open a bank account where Ryne Sandberg\u2019s publicity rights checks would be deposited. His children filled out the necessary documents, but Margaret Sandberg did not, and no bank account has been opened, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

Further, Margaret Sandberg showed them a note earlier this year purportedly written by Ryne Sandberg before his death. The note identifies Margaret Sandberg\u2019s son from a previous marriage, Steven Koehnemann (who was Ryne Sandberg\u2019s stepson), and the family financial advisor, Kathy Lintz, as part of the \u201cNIL committee,\u201d referring to the name, image and likeness of Ryne Sandberg.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Chicago<\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs\u2019 Ryne Sandberg, with his wife Margaret, wave to the crowd during Ryne Sandberg Day ceremonies prior to their game against the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday, Sept. 20,1997, in Chicago.<\/p>\n

In the complaint, Ryne Sandberg\u2019s children allege the note isn\u2019t a valid amendment to his trust because it wasn\u2019t presented to them until months after it was written and because any changes to the trust require the consent of the trustees. The trust can\u2019t be altered to increase obligations or decrease compensation of the trustees without the consent of all of them, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

They also point out that the note was dated four days before their dad entered hospice in July 2025 and that he was in severe physical pain and mental anguish, calling into question his ability to make decisions about his trust. During this time, Ryne Sandberg was heavily medicated and it was difficult to hold conversations with him, the complaint says. The note was dated the same day Lindsey Sandberg Newton heard her dad screaming out in pain, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

Sandberg died July 28, 20025.<\/p>\n

In the trust document, Ryne Sandberg implored his first two children and second wife to work together to make decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would disappoint me if they were unable to make decisions on my NIL in a positive and collaborative manner,\u201d Ryne Sandberg wrote in the trust document, according to the complaint. \u201cIt is also important to me to have any project reflect positively on my legacy and my entire family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Margaret Sandberg could not be reached for comment. Norm Finkel, an attorney for Justin Sandberg and Lindsey Sandberg Newton, didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The late Cubs legend Ryne Sandberg\u2019s children are suing his widow over alleged violations of his trust. Ryne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":["post-716448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cubs","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116687650633995172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}