In high-profile case causing political ripples in Virginia, Amherst County Attorney Emily Bowyer convinced a Bedford County Circuit Court judge, over the objections of Virginia’s Attorney General, that she has standing to challenge the decision by the board of directors of Sweet Briar College to close the school. The 114-years-old all-women’s college is apparently in financial trouble, which led the board of directors to announce in late March that the school would be closing effective as the end of the summer. In the same ruling, the judge held the college was a nonprofit corporation and not a trust and so was not subject to the Uniform Trust Act. The judge then issued a temporary injunction barring the sale or other disposition of any college assets, although he recently permitted some exceptions to that prohbition. All of these matters are now before the Virginia Supreme Court on expedited appeal according to the most recent Washington Post report.
In other news, Johnny Rex Buckles (Houston) previously blogged about the lawsuit by Harvard students to force Harvard College to divest from companies that produce fossil fuels. As he predicted was likely, the Massachusetts Superior Court has dismissed the lawsuit on standing grounds, although the students have vowed to appeal that decision. For the reasons detailed in the previous blog post, it seems unlikely that they will succeed.
Lloyd Mayer
