Dartmouth has filed a motion for summary judgment, in which a judge decides a case without a full trial, in the current alumni lawsuit against the College, the College announced on Monday. The suit is the second alumni lawsuit filed against the College in less than two years.
College general counsel Bob Donin told The Dartmouth in April that the College might file such a motion in July if information gathered during the suit's discovery period, which was to end in June, provided support for the College's position that the plaintiffs lack standing to sue, and that the terms of the dismissal of the previous alumni lawsuit against the College preclude alumni from filing the current lawsuit.
At that time, Donin said the College would argue in its motion that the principle of res judicata bars the plaintiffs from pursuing the current lawsuit, contending that it is based on claims that were already settled in the agreement to dismiss the previous suit. The motion. Donin said in April, would also contend that the alumni in the suit lack standing to sue, an argument the College had already outlined in a summary statement filed on March 23. The statement argues that the Association of Alumni has not authorized the individual alumni who brought the current lawsuit to litigate on its behalf, which Donin asserted in the April interview makes them third-party beneficiaries who lack standing to sue.
In April, Eugene Van Loan, the plaintiff's attorney, said he believed a potential College motion for summary judgment would fail, and called the potential motion a "hurdle" that the plaintiffs would "overcome." Van Loan also told The Dartmouth at that time that the plaintiff's were considering filing a summary judgment in order to speed the suit's proceedings.
In February 2008, the Grafton County Superior Court refused to grant the College's motion of dismissal in the previous lawsuit, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The current suit is the second to center on the issue of parity on the College's Board of Trustees between alumni-elected and Board-selected members. The first suit, brought by the Association of Alumni in October 2007, argued that the Board's recent decision to add eight Board-selected members violated an 1891 document that the plaintiffs said legally required the Board to maintain parity. The Association withdrew the suit in spring 2008 after alumni opposed to the suit swept all 11 seats in elections to fill the Association's executive committee.
The seven alumni who filed the current suit are not acting on behalf of the Association.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
