Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1978 [PAGE 377]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

366

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[Jujy 20

T h e university counsel has recommended that such authorization be ratified, approved, and confirmed in all respects. I concur. T h e student advisory vote w a s : Aye, Miss Conlon, M r . Overstreet; no, n o n e ; absent, Miss Winter. O n m o t i o n of M r . N e a l , this r e c o m m e n d a t i o n w a s a p p r o v e d by t h e following v o t e : A y e , M r . F o r s y t h , M r . H a h n , M r . H o w a r d , M r . L i v ingston, M r . Neal, M r s . R a d e r , M r s . Shepherd, M r . Velasquez; no, n o n e ; absent, M r . Lenz, Governor T h o m p s o n .

Litigation Relating to the Estate of Mabel F. Hunter

(49) Under the will of Mabel F . Hunter, the University was given four farms. A 280-acre farm in Sidney Township, Champaign County, Illinois, is to be used as an experimental farm in connection with the College of Agriculture. A 280acre farm in Macoupin County, Illinois, and two farms (240 acres and 210 acres) in Sangamon County, Illinois, are to be additions to the scholarship fund established by the decedent's husband to provide scholarships for students in the College of Agriculture. T h e will also made other gifts, including a 120-acre farm in Champaign County devised to Sidney United Church, the farm to be sold and the proceeds used to build a new church. Under the will the residuary estate was also left to Sidney United Church for the purposes of building or equipping the new church. Mabel F. Hunter died on August 5, 1974. None of the crops growing on her various farms had been harvested at the time of her death. The Springfield Marine Bank, as executor of the will of Mabel F. Hunter and as trustee under the will of Ralph O. Hunter, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court in Sangamon County (Case No. 425-75) seeking directions from the court as to the disposition of the proceeds of the 1974 crops harvested from the various farms subsequent to Mabel F. Hunter's death, and raising other questions concerning the administration of the estate. The defendants in the proceeding include the members of the Board of Trustees of the University, the Sidney United Church, and the other beneficiaries under the will. O n July 5, 1977, the Circuit Court of Sangamon County entered an order directing that the proceeds of the 1974 crops on the farms left to the University be apportioned between the University and the residuary beneficiary, Sidney United Church, on the basis of a 365-day year commencing March 1, 1974. Under the order, 157/365ths (representing the period March 1 to August 5, the date of death) of the value of the crops is to be paid to the church, and 208/365ths (representing the period August 5 to the next February 28) is to be paid to the University. The value of the 1974 crops on the farms given the University is $103,559.60, all of which the University contends is payable to the University as crops not harvested at the date of the decedent's death. As a result of the July 5, 1977, order, the University would receive $59,014.80 of this amount, and the Sidney United Church, as residuary legatee, would receive $44,544.80. The university counsel has stated that in his view the position of the University is well founded and that the University should be entitled to the §44,544.80 which the July 5, 1977, circuit court order allocates to the Sidney United Church. The university counsel has recommended that he be authorized to take such steps as are necessary or appropriate, including the employment of special counsel, to protect the interests of the University in this matter and to prosecute an appeal from the July 5, 1977, order. I concur.