July 16, 2009

Tulane University has moved for dismissal of the lawsuit brought by descendants of Josephine Louise Newcomb that seeks the reopening of a separate women-only college within Tulane University. The motion, which was filed July 15 in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, states that Mrs. Newcomb's will is "clear and unambiguous".

The will, according to the motion, does not place any conditions on the funds donated by Mrs. Newcomb to Tulane. In her will, Mrs. Newcomb said: "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." Tulane states that nowhere in the will does Mrs. Newcomb place any condition on the use of the funds.

Even though there is no condition in the will, Tulane's motion states that Tulane has honored Mrs. Newcomb's memory for the last 120 years, and continues to do so. As part of the Renewal Plan following Hurricane Katrina, Tulane consolidated its undergraduate colleges as the Newcomb-Tulane College, and established the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute, which continues to provide programming to undergraduate women at Tulane.

The present case, Montgomery v. The Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund, is the third lawsuit brought against Tulane attempting to force the reopening of the college, which was closed in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina. In both of the earlier cases, the courts have agreed with Tulane that the will contained no condition.

In the first case, brought by students and alumnae of the college, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana rejected the plaintiffs' bid to reopen the college, stating that there were "no restrictions" on Mrs. Newcomb's bequest, and that Tulane was entitled to use the donated funds for any purpose it chose.

In a second case, brought by other descendants of Mrs. Newcomb in the Civil District Court, the court found that “Mrs. Newcomb’s will did not create an enforceable conditional obligation that would support the granting of a preliminary injunction prohibiting Tulane from abolishing Newcomb College as a separate College within Tulane University.” That case was appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which did not even reach the merits of the case, but found that the plaintiffs had not shown that they had "standing" to challenge the will.

Mrs. Montgomery, who is now challenging Tulane's use of the funds, is descended from Mrs. Newcomb's sister, Eleanor LeMonnier Henderson. According to the Tulane motion, at the time of her death Mrs. Newcomb had been estranged from Mrs. Henderson and her family because Mrs. Henderson's family had attempted to have Mrs. Newcomb committed to an insane asylum. As a result, Mrs. Newcomb did not include the Henderson family in her will. Instead, she donated all of her residual estate to Tulane. Mrs. Newcomb placed no conditions on her bequest to Tulane because she did not want Mrs. Henderson's family to interfere with Tulane's use of the funds. Tulane argues that this case is a violation of Mrs. Newcomb's intentions.