(Nashville, TN, October 14, 2020) Opposing attorneys squared off this afternoon, as the contentious and long-simmering “Save Watkins” lawsuit headed back to court for the first time since May.
At stake: the future of the Watkins College of Art merger with Belmont University and, in particular, the future of Watkins’ multimillion-dollar campus in Metro Center, a prize worth an estimated $20 million.
Today’s hearing followed the new attempt by attorneys for Watkins and Belmont to throw the lawsuit out of court on technical grounds. They met via video conference in Davidson County Chancery Court, in front of Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal.
The “Save Watkins” lawsuit seeks to prove that Watkins College is a public entity held in trust for the benefit of the people of Tennessee. Therefore, they claim, Watkins College can’t be dissolved or merged with Belmont or any other entity without the appropriate public process, including public meetings, public records, and legislative and judicial oversight.
Watkins was established by the will of Nashville philanthropist Samuel Watkins, and was formalized in state law in 1881, under a Commission appointed by the Governor.
The attorneys for Watkins and Belmont claim that the law establishing Watkins is “obsolete”, and that all Watkins property is actually owned by a private non-profit corporation that was established alongside the Trust in the 1970’s. They describe the merger and absorption into Belmont as a routine private corporate transaction. Therefore, they claim, they can legally give the property from Watkins to Belmont, and Belmont can dispose of it how they want.
In the months since the merger was announced, Belmont has shuttered the Watkins campus and transferred its art curriculum to the “Watkins College of Art at Belmont”. They cite the very fact that they have done so as the reason that the suit should be declared dead.
The “Save Watkins” attorneys filed a blistering response to the attempt to kill the suit, charging that actions of Watkins, Belmont, and the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office threaten "the very integrity and future" of public trusts as a vehicle of philanthropic giving in Tennessee. They also charge the Attorney General's Office of being "complicit in the raiding of these public assets".
Kevin Teets, one of the “Save Watkins” attorneys, emphasized these points in oral arguments today, characterizing the position of Belmont, Watkins, and the Attorney General as asking the judge to be the “publisher” of a “manual” on how to raid public trusts for private gain.
“This case is pivotal to the future of the guarding of public assets in Tennessee from marauding private pirates,” echoed “Save Watkins” attorney Jonathon Fagan in a separate statement. “If Belmont gets its way here, then this will serve as a 'Public Asset Raiding 101 Guidebook'. Belmont will essentially be writing the playbook for how to snatch up struggling public charitable trusts that were created from someone’s dying wishes in a will.”
Any possible sale of the Watkins property is complicated by the dispute over who owns it. The plaintiffs have filed a “Notice of Lien Lis Pendens” on the property, which gives formal notification of the ongoing litigation to any potential buyers.
Meanwhile, according to a sign recently erected at the Metro Center site in North Nashville, the nearly-fourteen-acre parcel is offered for sale via commercial real estate brokers Walker Dunlop and Cushman & Wakefield.
The Attorney General's office has the dual role of protecting the assets of Public Trusts and overseeing the mergers of non-profits. The Save Watkins' suit asserts that this is a disqualifying conflict of interest because the AG also sits on the board of the Watkins non-profit.
“The Attorney General should have protected the public here, but instead has been complicit in destroying Samuel Watkins' testamentary gift for Nashville’s youth", Fagan stated. “We are asking the court to simply recognize how this issue of a derelict and political state Attorney General has been handled in other jurisdictions, and adopt a similar stance in invoking court power to protect the public’s interest.”
The plaintiffs in the legal challenge are Kenneth Strawn and Amari Harris, two former students of Watkins College of Art, and Mark Schlicher, an alumnus and former adjunct instructor at the institution. They are represented by attorneys Kevin Teets, Jr., and Jonathon Fagan.