NEW ORLEANS — A lawsuit by the New Orleans City Council to undo an agreement by Mayor LaToya Cantrell over who has control of a century-old trust that provides millions of dollars to the city has been revived.
In a 5-2 ruling, the Louisiana Supreme Court on Friday reversed an appeals court ruling that the council had no legal standing to contest a settlement between the city and the Edward Wisner Trust, a 110-year-old donation of valuable property at Port Fourchon.
The Council maintains that the property, which generates about $10 million a year, should have reverted entirely to the city when the trust expired in 2014 after being in place for a century.
The City Council sued Cantrell to undo an agreement the mayor made in 2020 with the Wisner heirs to privatize the trust and continue dividing up the revenue between the city, the heirs, Tulane University, LSU Health Sciences Center, and the Salvation Army.
That arrangement traditionally allowed New Orleans mayors to dole out the city’s portion of the proceeds to special projects and programs without council input.
The high court reversal means the lawsuit will go back to Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese, who had declared the Wisner Trust proceeds “public funds” and blocked the mayor and Wisner’s heirs from spending them without the City Council’s approval.
The majority ruling, written by Justice Scott Crichton, sends the lawsuit back to Reese.
“The Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans, read as a whole in light of its purpose and structure, and by its specific provisions related to the “particular purpose at issue” in this case, makes clear that the Council of the City of New Orleans has the procedural capacity to institute this lawsuit against the named defendants,” the ruling states.
The Supreme Court, however, did not weigh in on the merits of the suit, setting the stage for more legal fireworks.
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