Howard v. Administrators of Tulane Ed. Fund
| Decision Date | 01 July 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 2007-C-2224.,2007-C-2224. |
| Citation | 986 So.2d 47 |
| Parties | Parma Matthis HOWARD and Jane Matthis Smith v. ADMINISTRATORS OF the TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Harry Alston Johnson, III and Thomas K. Hyatt, for amicus curiae, Association of Govering Boards of Universities and Colleges.
This writ concerns standing to enforce the terms of alleged conditional gifts long after the death of the donor, Josephine Louise LeMonnier Newcomb ("Mrs. Newcomb"), and acceptance by the donee, the Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund ("Tulane Board"). The pretrial posture of this case presents the interesting res nova issues of whether Louisiana law allows such an action and whether a non-legatee, would-be heir1 has standing to file suit for injunctive relief on behalf of a donor/testator to enforce alleged conditional donations inter vivos and/or mortis causa.
The plaintiffs, Parma Matthis Howard and Jane Matthis Smith, alleged heirs of Mrs. Newcomb, raised this issue in their petition for preliminary injunction, permanent injunction, and declaratory judgment filed in the district court, seeking to enjoin the abolishment of the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College ("Newcomb College") in Tulane University, which was established and maintained initially through the monetary donations of Mrs. Newcomb. Before filing its answer, the Tulane Board filed various exceptions, including a peremptory exception of no right of action. The district court denied the plaintiffs' petition for preliminary injunction after a hearing, but did not rule on any of the exceptions. The plaintiffs appealed to the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, which in effect dismissed the action sua sponte based on the peremptory exception raising the objection of no right of action. In plaintiffs' writ application to this Court, we found error in the court of appeal's analysis of the exception of no right of action and granted certiorari. Howard v. Administrators of Tulane Educational Fund, 07-2224 (La.2/22/08), 976 So.2d 1275. After an in-depth study of our Civil Code and civilian tradition, we find Louisiana law grants a would-be heir or legatee standing to enforce a condition of a donation. Therefore, we vacate and set aside the judgment of the court of appeal, sustain the exception of no right of action, and remand this case to the district court to allow the plaintiffs to amend their petition to more accurately establish their standing as would-be heirs of Mrs. Newcomb, if they can.
This civil case originated with a petition for preliminary injunction, permanent injunction, and declaratory judgment filed by plaintiffs, as alleged collateral heirs of Mrs. Newcomb, in Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans on May 16, 2006, naming as defendant, the Tulane Board. In their petition, plaintiffs alleged that by letter dated October 11, 1886, Mrs. Newcomb donated $100,000 to the Tulane Board "for the clear and explicit purpose of establishing a separate college for women in honor of her deceased daughter, H. Sophie Newcomb." The letter provided, in pertinent part:
In pursuance of a long cherished design to establish an appropriate memorial of my beloved daughter H. Sophie Newcomb, deceased, I have determined ... to entrust to your Board the execution of my design.
Feeling a deep personal sympathy with the people of New Orleans, and a strong desire to advance the cause of female education in Louisiana, and believing also that I shall find in the Board selected by the benevolent Paul Tulane, the wisest and safest custodian of the fund I propose to give, I hereby donate to your Board the sum of One hundred thousand dollars, to be used in establishing the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, in the Tulane University of Louisiana for the higher education of white girls and young women.
I request that you will see that the tendency of the institution shall be in harmony with the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, and to that end that you will have a chapel or assembly room in which Christian worship may be observed daily for the benefit of the students. But I desire that the worship and instruction shall not be of a sectarian or denominational character. I further request that the education given shall look to the practical side of life, as well as to literary excellence. But I do not mean in this my act of donation to impose upon you restrictions which will allow the intervention of any person or persons to control, regulate or interfere with your disposition of this fund, which is committed fully and solely to your care and discretion with entire confidence in your fidelity and wisdom.
Mrs. Newcomb continued to donate monies to Newcomb College through the Tulane Board until her death on April 7, 1901. Thereafter, she made the Tulane Board her universal legatee in her olographic will,2 which provided, in pertinent part:
First: I have resided of late years in different places, but have made the City of New Orleans my permanent home, because I here witness and enjoy the growth of the "H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College" a Department of the Tulane University of Louisiana which I have founded, and has been named in honor of the memory of my beloved daughter.
I have implicit confidence that the "Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund" will continue to use and apply the benefactions and property, I have bestowed and may give, for the present and future development of this Department of the University Known as the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College which engrosses my thoughts and purposes, and is endeared to me by such hallowed associations.
Second: I have no forced heirs, I have no debts and I hereby revoke all wills of a date anterior to this.
I hereby make the following special legacies and bequests.
To the Greenwood Cemetery a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of Chapter 298 of the laws of the State of New York passed in 1838, the sum of two thousand ($2,000) Dollars for the care of lots numbered 17,036 and 17,037, and it is my desire, that at my death, my remains may be placed with the loved ones there at rest.
To Alice Bowman of New Orleans Louisiana Five Thousand ($5,000) Dollars.
To William Robertson of Charleston South Carolina One Thousand ($1,000) Dollars.
Third: With the exception of the Special legacies and bequests herein above stated and made, I hereby give and bequeath to the "Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund" of New Orleans, the whole of the property real, personal and mixed, of which I am now possessed or which I may leave at the time of my death, and to that end and purpose I do hereby name and constitute the said "Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund" to be my universal legatee.
I appoint my cousin and friend Joseph S. Hincks and my friend B.V.B. Dixon to be Executors giving them seizin and detainer of my estate and requiring no bond from them.
Thus wholly have I written dated and signed this my last will and testament at New Orleans Louisiana this 12th day May 1898.
Plaintiffs allege that these donations both inter vivos and mortis causa "were made with the expectation that the Tulane Board would continue H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College as a separate entity within Tulane University"; yet, "[n]otwithstanding [Mrs. Newcomb]'s clear and explicit intent and the Tulane Board's more than 119-year satisfaction of the restrictions of her donations, the Tulane Board voted to close H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College on June 30, 2006, and to divert funding dedicated to support of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College" under its Renewal Plan.3
Alleging that the Tulane Board breached its fiduciary duty as stewards of Mrs. Newcomb's donations and arguing that, if the Tulane Board was allowed to proceed, Newcomb College would be closed forever, which would constitute irreparable harm for which monetary damages would be an inadequate remedy, the plaintiffs sought: (1) a preliminary injunction enjoining and prohibiting the Tulane Board from abolishing Newcomb College; (2) a permanent injunction enjoining and prohibiting the Tulane Board from abolishing Newcomb College; and (3) a declaratory judgment determining that the Tulane Board's actions violate the terms and conditions of Mrs. Newcomb's donations, inter vivos and mortis causa, to the Tulane Board, that the continuance of Newcomb College is not impractical, impossible or illegal, and that Newcomb College must continue as a degree-granting college within Tulane University.
In response, the Tulane Board filed peremptory exceptions of prescription, res judicata, no right of action, and no...
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