Author: Hawes Spencer

An Amherst County judge ruled Wednesday that Sweet Briar, whose board wants to close the women’s college, may not sell any assets for six months. The move provided a partial win in a student-based lawsuit to halt the closing, but the plaintiffs said there was cause to celebrate.

“This was a huge victory,” said attorney Elliott Schuchardt, who represents the students suing, “because it means the student community has access to the courts, and the courts are listening.”

Judge James Updike, hearing the case in a borrowed Bedford County courtroom, used terms like “unilateral” and “arbitrary” to describe closing a 114-year-old school where hundreds of students were expecting to earn diplomas.

“There’s a basis for finding this ain’t right,” said Updike.

He refrained, however, from providing the more sweeping relief the plaintiffs sought, an order keeping the College open. And the defense, in a brief prepared statement, hailed the judge for noting that the College needs cash.

Debbie Sackman has cash concerns. After the ruling, this mother of a Sweet Briar student who isn’t party to the suit strode past the courtroom divider to confront interim president James Jones.

“I hope you sleep well tonight,” said Sackman, contending that relaunching her daughter’s dual major will cost $78,000.

Even though he’s married to a Sweet Briar alumna, Jones has become a focal point for ire over the closing. Critics point to his accelerated departure from his prior college presidency amid allegations of improper use of donated funds and his public claim that Sweet Briar’s survival requires more than doubling the endowment to $250 million.

On Wednesday, his testimony professing ignorance of how much money the college needs or where its biggest fund could be spent prompted the plaintiffs’ attorney to brand him “extremely evasive.”

Woody Fowler, lawyer for the college, scoffed at aspects of Schuchart’s case, which included questions hinting that the board chairman might profit from the sale of the 3,250-acre campus.

“Plaintiff counsel’s willingness to engage in rumor-mongering and engage in factual inaccuracies,” said Fowler, “is astounding.”

The rumor mill may flourish in part because the College has chosen not to unveil its deliberations about the closing, and a reporter’s efforts to interview board members has been uniformly met with refusals.

College spokesperson Christy Jackson declines to provide the minutes of board meetings or even a copy of the body’s bylaws. She did say, via prepared statement, that the College shares the judge’s concern that money could run out.

“The only thing that can save the College would be a truly substantial infusion of funds,” Jackson wrote.

This student-centered lawsuit becomes the second heard by Judge Updike. The first, filed by the Amherst County Attorney, resulted in a 60-day ban on spending donated funds for the closing as well as an appeal, filed Wednesday, seeking wider relief from the Virginia Supreme Court. A third lawsuit, filed by faculty, has yet to be heard.

Schuchardt says he won’t wait for the other two suits but instead plans to quickly launch into the discovery process in hopes of gaining a permanent injunction.

“I remain optimistic,” says Schuchardt. “This place can be saved, and it can be done through this lawsuit.”

 

As both sides in a legal battle over the announced closure of Sweet Briar College weigh their options after a judge put a 60-day hold on efforts to shutter the school, another lawsuit looms. Filed April 17, it comes from students who say they are victims of a breach of contract who may incur tens of thousands of dollars in additional expenses to get a degree.

“It’s so much worse for juniors because we’re so far down the academic path,” says Alexia Albrecht Richards, who isn’t party to the suit but said finishing her degree anywhere but Sweet Briar will consume an additional year even though she says she already earned sufficient credits to graduate.

The lawsuit accuses President James F. Jones Jr. of reckless spending, hasty decision-making and bad faith as evidenced by his alleged refusal to accept no-cost debt restructuring assistance from an expert.

The filing attorney, Winchester-based Elliott Schuchardt, asserts that Jones could face personal liability for abrogating his fiduciary duty to the institution.

College spokesperson Christy Jackson fires back that the suit is “factually inaccurate and legally de-
fective.” But Charlottesville-based legal analyst David Heilberg isn’t so sure.

“It’s well-pled,” says Heilberg, predicting that the case won’t be quickly dismissed.

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in the first suit—brought by Amherst County Attorney Ellen Bowyer and supported by alumnae activists—have said they’ll appeal a judge’s ruling last week that granted a temporary hold on efforts to close Sweet Briar. They had sought a permanent injunction against closure, as well as the ouster of the board.

“While this 60-day injunction is limited in scope and time, it is a very important first step,” said Sarah Clement, a 1975 Sweet Briar graduate who holds a JD from UVA’s School of Law. She said Bowyer is in the process of filing the appeal with the Virginia Supreme Court, a move that could happen as early as this week. In the meantime, claiming over $10 million in college-saving pledges to the group Saving Sweet Briar, she urged current students to hold off on making commitments to other schools.

Activists seeking to keep Sweet Briar College open had their hopes dashed yesterday when a Bedford County judge denied a motion to kick out the school’s governing board and permanently block a plan to shutter the women’s college.

After a contentious morning in court that saw emotional witness statements, the crowd thinned slightly from around 70 to 50, as some students had to return to their classes. An accountant pronounced the College’s balance sheet as sound and growing, and a turnaround consultant testified how she helped save Birmingham Southern College.”You wanna make sure you try,” said Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith who likened the board’s action to the introduction of New Coke, a widely ridiculed 1980s flavor change.
“Do you make a change without talking to your customers?” she asked.

Soon, however, the case began turning against the women in pink and green. The defense declined to present any evidence but instead opted to go straight into its final argument, that no evidence showed it had strayed from its mission.

That brought a response from William Hurd, the Richmond-based private lawyer assisting Amherst County Attorney Ellen Bowyer in bringing the injunction to block the closure. He invoked George Orwell’s novel 1984.

“War is peace, freedom is slavery,” Hurd said with obvious sarcasm, “and closing is operating.”

Judge James Updike was unconvinced. He ultimately denied the things the plaintiffs most wanted: ouster of the board, appointment of a receiver, and a permanent injunction against closing. Instead, he issued a 60-day injunction barring the College from spending donated funds on closing activities.

“This gives us a little time, but not enough,” said freshman Emily Dodson.

Charlottesville attorney Dave Heilberg, who is not associated with the Sweet Briar case, explained that in the absence of evidence of fraud or bad faith, Virginia law gives non-stock companies great operational leeway—even to the point of ceasing operations.

While both sides verbalized an interest in heeding the judge’s suggestion that they find some common ground, lead plaintiff Ellen Bowyer indicated that she planned to file an expedited appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court.

If the women who want to save their 114-year-old Sweet Briar College are David and the state’s top lawyer is Goliath, David seems to be winning this battle.

On Tuesday, a Bedford County judge cleared the way for Amherst County Attorney Ellen Bowyer’s motion seeking an injunction to block the closure of the school. Her argument: Sweet Briar’s governors ran afoul of Virginia’s charitable solicitations law when they sought donations without disclosing their plans to shutter the college at the end of the current academic year.

Wednesday morning’s hearing began with fireworks, as the lead counsel for the school’s board, which announced in early March that Sweet Briar would close, called the presence of private counsel at the plaintiff’s table an “ambush.” He then called Ellen Bowyer, the Amherst County Attorney, a “puppet,” a label that drew jeers and eventually an apology.

The judge called a 10-minute recess and then ruled that Bowyer was free to choose a private lawyer to assist, in this case William Hurd of the Richmond-based Troutman Sanders.

Left unclear is why the Attorney General has inserted his office into the mix. He filed an amicus brief trying to halt the process, something that the judge noted he’d never seen in his 37-year professional career. Judge James Updike seemed undeterred by the firepower both Tuesdayand Wednesday when he shot down entreaties by the AG’s office to stop the litigation.

On Twitter, Sweet Briar political science professor Steve Bragaw quipped the defense should have watched My Cousin Vinny to learn that it’s unwise to insult opposing counsel in a small town hearing. And he calls this proceeding “kind of like the unholy mashup of Braveheart and Designing Women  by way of the courthouse scenes in Dukes of Hazard.”

One of the more powerful women in the courtroom was the mayor of Georgia’s second-largest city. Teresa Pike Tomlinson took the stand Wednesday to tell how a college fund-raising official flew to Columbus in mid-February to get her to sign a letter affirming her commitment to donate $1 million in her will. Left unsaid, Tomlinson said, was any mention that the college might close, even though talks had reportedly already begun with schools to accept Sweet Briar students.

The interim president of the college, James Jones, who invited Tomlinson to be next month’s graduation speaker, reddened as Tomlinson spoke. But the mayor brought tears to the eyes of others in the courtroom as she talked of her love for the college, and how she didn’t learn what was happening to it until March 3 when she emerged from a city meeting. She testified she was told that there was a reporter on the line from Lynchburg seeking a quote about the closing of Sweet Briar.

Court resumed around 1pm Wednesday.