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Vol. LXI, No. 44
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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Vol. LXI, No. 44
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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In the latest chapter in a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit over academic donor intent, a New Jersey judge last week set various ground rules as a dispute between Princeton University and the heirs to the A&P Supermarket fortune prepare to go to trial.
The heirs, the Robertson family, filed a suit against the University in 2002 concerning how the school invested the Robertson Foundation endowment, now worth an estimated $880 million. The endowment was established in 1961 by a $35 million gift by Charles and Marie Robertson in order to prepare Woodrow Wilson School students for careers in government.
And while it is not central to the suit, Robertson heirs have complained that not enough graduates were seeking careers in the public sector.
The University has maintained in years of pre-trial motions and proceedings that the family has insisted on a narrow interpretation of the purpose of the gift, and that the monies have been used to support broad graduate student education.
Both sides benefitted to an extent by the rulings of New Jersey Superior Court Judge Neil H. Schuster. The Robertsons were encouraged by the judge’s ruling that Princeton University’s status as sole beneficiary of the foundation should be determined in a trial, which could potentially result in the University losing the entire gift, though only under the most “egregious and nefarious circumstances,” Judge Schuster said in his ruling.
The school benefited from the judge’s determination that the school could spend earned interest and dividends, as well as gains on investments. Judge Schuster also ruled out a jury trial.
No trial date has been set.