A Louisiana appellate court has dismissed a lawsuit by the New Orleans City Council against Mayor LaToya Cantrell over the Wisner Trust, saying the legislative body essentially didn’t have standing to bring the case.
The City Council sued Cantrell last year to undo an agreement the mayor made in 2020 with the heirs of Edward Wisner. A philanthropist, Wisner left a huge land trust to New Orleans 109 years ago. Cantrell's deal allowed the heirs to continue to share the lucrative proceeds among themselves, and let the city’s mayors continue to dole out their share of the money to special programs and projects without council oversight.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeal on Friday overturned a ruling by Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese, which 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.
"We are pleased with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal's dismissal of the New Orleans City Council lawsuit,” mayoral spokesman Gregory Joseph said Friday.
Fight to continue
City Council member Joe Giarrusso said the council disagrees with the latest ruling, and will likely take the case to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
In a news release Monday, Giarrusso said the appellate court ruling does nothing to help resolve the Wisner Trust and that the trust assets belong to the city of New Orleans.
New Orleans City Council member raises a point during an April 7, 2022, council meeting.
"In 2014, the Wisner Trust expired. Those significant trust assets, including Port Fourchon, belong to the city of New Orleans and no one else," Giarrusso said.
"On Friday, the Fourth Circuit, for the second time, agreed that the trust expired nearly ten years ago. The appellate court’s ruling that the council lacks the capacity to enforce the trust’s expiration is hyper-technical and does nothing but delay these proceedings," he added. "This can and will be easily fixed if necessary. Someone must be able to sue to protect what properly belongs to the city. The residents of New Orleans deserve no less than that."
Reese's ruling threatened to shut down dozens of social programs and projects that mayors have supported for decades using about 35% of the Wisner Trust funds.
In recent months, Cantrell and the council have agreed on allocations of some of the money as the lawsuit progressed through the courts.
Updated agreements
Wisner’s heirs have been fighting to maintain control of the money after the trust was supposed to have dissolved in 2014.
But the mayor at that time, Mitch Landrieu, never made moves to claim the land, and neither did Cantrell.
In 2020, Cantrell struck a new agreement with the heirs to privatize the trust so it could continue to be shared as it had been, in perpetuity. Other recipients are Tulane University, LSU Health Sciences Center and the Salvation Army
Port Fourchon, La., photographed on Saturday, June 3, 2023. (Flight courtesy of SouthWings)(Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune)
The City Council argues 100% of the property, which includes a major oil and gas port at Port Fourchon and generates around $10 million a year in lease payments, should have automatically gone to the city in 2014.
Any money the land generated would have gone to the city’s general fund, would have been reported publicly, and would have been budgeted with City Council oversight.