Arboretum Trust Suit Approaches Verdict After New Delay

After three weeks of unexpected delay, the Arnold arboretum's $1 million breach of trust suit against the Corporation has been presented to the State Supreme Court for immediate decision.

Supreme Court Justice John V. Spaulding, who was to have passed decision by the middle of October, instead granted a final continuance until yesterday so that both sides could prepare further information briefs. Spaulding is sole arbiter in the case.

Warren F. Farr '27, counsel for the Corporation, and Robert G. Dodge, counsel for the Arboretum, both now expect Spaulding to rule within two weeks. If Spaulding should decide against the Corporation, the University will have to return thousands of dried plant specimens and a substantial library housed in the University Herbarium to the arboretum, from which they were moved in June.

The Counsel for the Arboretum maintains in its final brief that by moving six-sevenths of the total Arnold collection to Cambridge, the University has violated the trust which stipulated that they must act "in the sole interest of the Arnold Arboretum." Furthermore, by arranging for the Arboretum director to teach undergraduate botany courses, Harvard is clearly benefiting "other interests."

In opposition, Farr has reiterated the University's contention that "as a charitable corporation, Harvard does not have individual interests of its own."

Dodge's brief for the Arboretum further accuses the Corporation of falling to keep the Arboretum an "independent and separate institution," a requirement he infers from the original trust. To this argument Farr counters that "the Arboretum has never been an object or end in itself."