Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1954 [PAGE 583]

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BOARD OF T R U S T E E S

[March 25

COMMITTEE OF THE W H O L E

When the Board convened, it resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole to consider the following items of business:

Report from the special committee on claims against the George A. Miller Estate. Report from the Legal Counsel on the progress of negotiations with the Patrick W a r r e n Construction Company to expedite the completion of the addition to the Research and Educational Hospitals. Report from the President of the University on the Benjamin Franklin Magazine Awards. Special report from the President of the University on the 1953-1955 Biennial Budget.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

When the Committee rose, the Board of Trustees reconvened, in executive session, to consider the following committee report.

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON CLAIMS AGAINST GEORGE A. MILLER ESTATE At the March, 1952, meeting of the Board a Special Committee, comprising the undersigned and Mr. John R. Fornof, was appointed for the purpose of considering a claim asserted against the Estate of George A. Miller, deceased, by those blood nieces and nephews of Cassandra A. Miller (Professor Miller's wife who had predeceased him) who survived him. The claimants are Martha Love Kilgore, Estelle Love White, Cassandra Love McKown, Beryl Love Bristow, Ethel Wilson, Bernice Wilson, George H . Wilson, Ralph E. Wilson, Elizabeth Boggs Bartholow, Winifred Johnston Carpenter, Oliver M. Johnston, Jr., O. Carter Boggs, and Stanley Boggs. The Committee held a meeting on April 10, 1952, at which the attorneys for the claimants, and one of the claimants, appeared before the Committee and the Executor of the Estate and presented the legal theories and alleged factual data upon which the claim is based. This presentation demonstrated that the claimants assert a claim to approximately one-half of Professor Miller's entire estate, but the attorneys for the claimants stated that their clients would accept $125,000 in full compromise settlement of the claim. The Committee reserved action upon the claim and that offer at that time pending investigation of the claim by Mr. J. G. Thomas, counsel for the Executor, and by the University Legal Counsel. Subsequently, suit was instituted against the Executor and the University by Ralph E. Schellhamer for one-fourth of Professor Miller's estate and, by agreement, further action upon the claim and offer was held in abeyance pending the outcome of that suit. Following the settlement of the Schellhamer suit which was authorized by the Executive Committee of the Board, Mr. Thomas and the Legal Counsel completed their investigation of the claim and reported the result to the Committee at a meeting of the latter and the Executor held on February 23, 1953. At that meeting, after full consideration and discussion of the claim, Mr. Thomas and the University Legal Counsel were instructed to attempt to negotiate a settlement with the claimants upon a much lower basis than their offer and were authorized to submit an offer of settlement to their counsel in the sum of $25,000. Through their negotiations with counsel for the claimants, a definite offer of settlement has been obtained which contemplates the payment to the claimants of the sum of $35,000 from the funds of the George A. Miller estate and the cancellation of a promissory note in the principal sum of $1,500 upon which approximately $500 in interest is now due and unpaid given Professor Miller by Richard B. Kilgore, the son of one of the claimants, which is now held by the Executor as constituting a portion of the assets of the estate. The Executor and his attorney report that the prospects of collecting this note, except over a period of time and at considerable expense, are poor. In the event the offer is accepted, full and complete releases of all claims against the estate and the University will be given by each of the claimants and by Martha Harriett Love, a surviving sister, and by