After hearing almost 30 minutes of legal arguments during a telephone conference call, Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green said Thursday he's "committed to maintaining the status quo until we can figure out which way the lawsuit's going to proceed" in the new Lincoln University Foundation lawsuit against LU's Board of Curators.
The judge set a status hearing for June 10.
On Monday, the foundation - now known as the 62nd & 65th Regiments Legacy Foundation Inc. - filed a 16-page suit, asking Green to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking the curators and the university administration from using any and all foundation donor information and documents.
"We seek to preclude them from using that donor information and donor history for their own purposes," St. Louis attorney Gabriel Gore told Green. "With respect to the $667,000 of foundation special purpose funds that were transferred, what we seek is that that money not be expended, and that it basically be frozen as we proceed with the lawsuit."
But, St. Louis attorney William Robert Bay told Green on Thursday the foundation's lawsuit "proceeds on a seriously erroneous theory (that) the university is an agent of the foundation. The foundation's theory would mean that the foundation has the right to control the university. The statutes of Missouri clearly give control to the curators of Lincoln University, not the foundation."
Bay reminded the judge that LU's Curators created the foundation in October 1970 to be part of the university's fundraising operations and, "If a court were to rule that university is agent of the foundation - the one it created - it would be a startling result that would effectively put foundations in charge of universities around the country."
He said Lincoln University is both the "beneficiary of all the funds" raised by the foundation and is "the true owner of the funds and the intended owner of the funds. Every donor who gives money (that is) to be used by the university, not by the foundation."
Part of the dispute involves more than $667,000 that, the foundation says, is its money that was transferred to the university without the foundation's approval - even though the transfers were made by a foundation board member who was authorized to sign checks.
If Green blocks the university from using that money, Bay said, the decision will hurt students and various programs they participate in.
Bay also said the foundation is asking for copies of foundation records going back to 1970, but there will be both time and expense involved in getting those documents copied.
Bay urged Green to dismiss the entire lawsuit because, Bay said, "The foundation has no chance to succeed" with its lawsuit, and cannot show the court that it will suffer any "irreparable harm."
In addition, Bay said, "We believe this is a waste of money that would be better to serve the university and its students."
Gore said the foundation wants Green to order "a full accounting" of everything spent from the transferred funds.