Recent Development by Kristen van de Biezenbos Gresham
Josephine Louise LeMonnier Newcomb (Mrs. Newcomb) established the all-female H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College at Tulane University (the College) as “an appropriate memorial” to her beloved daughter. Mrs. Newcomb supported the College through a series of inter vivos gifts that began in 1886 and continued until her death in 1901. In her will, Mrs. Newcomb named the “Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund” (the Board) as her universal legatees, leaving them “the whole of [her] property real, personal and mixed.” Over one hundred years later, in response to the financial effects of Hurricane Katrina upon Tulane, the Board closed the College as a separate institution in order to create a unified undergraduate college and diverted the monies intended for the College into a fund to support women's programs. Thereafter, Parma Matthis Howard and Jane Matthis Smith, alleging to be heirs of Mrs. Newcomb, brought suit to stop the closure of the College, claiming that the Board breached its fiduciary duty as overseer of Mrs. Newcomb's donations and arguing that the dissolution of the College constituted irreparable harm for which money damages were inadequate. The plaintiffs sought a preliminary and a permanent injunction, as well as a declaratory judgment. The Board subsequently filed peremptory exceptions of prescription, res judicata, no right of action, and no cause of action.
The Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans denied the plaintiffs' petition, holding that Mrs. Newcomb's gifts to the Board did not create an enforceable obligation and that the plaintiffs failed to establish a prima facie case of irreparable harm. On appeal, the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals addressed, sua sponte, whether the plaintiffs had a right to seek injunctive relief. The court noted that there was no precedent for nonlegatee, would-be heirs to seek enforcement of a conditional donation and further found that the language of Mrs. Newcomb's will was precatory and thus not binding on the Board. The court then remanded the case to the district court with instructions to grant the Board's exception of no right of action and to dismiss the plaintiffs' petition for a preliminary injunction. The Supreme Court of Louisiana granted writs in order to determine the narrow question of whether, under Louisiana law, a would-be heir has the right to sue for an injunction in order to enforce a conditional donation. The Supreme Court of Louisiana held that because the successors of a donor have the right to sue for the revocation of a conditional donation, they also have the right to seek enforcement of the conditions under Louisiana's general contract law. Howard v. Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund, 2007-C-2224, p. 18 (La. 7/1/08); 986 So. 2d 47, 60-61.
About the Author
Kristen van de Biezenbos Gresham. J.D. candidate 2010, Tulane University School of Law; M.F.A. 2007, University of New Orleans; B.A. 2000, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Citation
83 Tul. L. Rev. 1509 (2009)