Legal battle continues over $650 million endowed foundation
By: David Campbell
A state Superior Court judge heard arguments Tuesday on a request by Princeton University to keep some documents confidential as part of its defense in an ongoing legal battle over control of a $650 million endowed foundation for the university’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
In 2002, the Robertson family, led by William Robertson, filed a lawsuit seeking to strip Princeton of its endowment for the Robertson Foundation. The suit alleges the university improperly directed at least $207 million to uses other than for what the money originally was intended to train graduate students at the Woodrow Wilson School for government service.
On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Neil H. Shuster heard arguments by Princeton lawyer Douglas Eakeley and Robertson attorney Seth Lapidow on a sealed motion the university filed that seeks to keep some information private, including documents the university itself submitted with a motion filed in January, Mr. Lapidow said Wednesday.
In its January filing, Princeton asked the court to rule, among other things, that the university remain the sole beneficiary of the foundation, and to affirm an earlier decision by the foundation trustees to retain PRINCO, a university subsidiary, as the foundation’s investment manager.
Mr. Lapidow said Princeton has identified documents as confidential in a "wholesale" manner at issue, he said, are an estimated 100,000 documents which he said has proven a "confidentiality nightmare" for both sides.
He said that while the family’s attorneys must individually challenge each confidentiality designation for documents they want to file publicly, the university selectively withdraws confidentiality on items it wishes to use in its defense.
University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt called his claim "outrageous" and not supported by the record.
"At the plaintiff’s request, we have withdrawn confidentiality on thousands of pages," she said. "At the beginning of the lawsuit, the parties agreed on how confidential documents would be handled. The university has acted in accordance with the agreement, and it is unfortunate the plaintiffs are now unhappy with it."
Ms. Cliatt said that at issue in the university’s motion was less than 1 percent of all the discovery materials in the case "Or more specifically, the most sensitive two-tenths of 1 percent and we hope Judge Shuster rules favorably on the remaining questions," she noted.
Mr. Lapidow said personal information, identifiable salary information and anything that could be personally embarrassing should be kept confidential, but that other items, such as funding sources for programs, should be made public.
Judge Shuster agreed Tuesday that letters filed on the reappointment of former Woodrow Wilson School dean Michael Rothschild could prove embarrassing and should be kept confidential, and that information on some donors other than the Robertsons could be made public, but not the sizes of their gifts, Mr. Lapidow said.
The judge reserved judgment on whether information on funding for programs at the Woodrow Wilson School by the university and outside funding sources can be public. Also, he asked Mr. Eakeley for a sealed affidavit pending a ruling explaining how a list of hedge-fund managers for PRINCO that Princeton argues is a trade secret that should be kept confidential "inadvertently" got included in the January filing, the Robertson lawyer said.
Ms. Cliatt said Princeton is pleased the judge was in agreement on protecting confidentiality on the items on which he ruled, and is hopeful of favorable rulings on pending items.
"We acknowledge there still remain other documents the university has designated as confidential, but these other confidential documents were not at issue in the motion because plaintiffs did not challenge them," she said.
The Robertson Foundation was established in 1961 to expand and support the graduate program at the Woodrow Wilson School by the family of Charles S. and Marie H. Robertson, heirs to the A&P grocery-chain fortune.
The original endowment of $35 million in A&P stock has since grown to about $650 million. The family stipulated the money was to be used for programs to train graduate students for careers in government service.
Mr. Eakeley was not available for comment.