Holy Cross donor sues to recoup $21 million

A School of the Holy Cross donor is suing the establishment in an effort to recoup $21 million, alleging that the college delayed building on a performing arts middle and was not clear in the way it used his funds, The Boston Globe reported.

Cornelius B. Prior Jr., a 1956 Holy Cross graduate, argued in a lawsuit filed final fall that he donated $18 million in 2012 on the situation that his alma mater develop a performing arts middle on campus “directly.” He then donated one other 3 million for a separate undertaking “that he didn’t want to fund, with out which Holy Cross refused to honor its settlement to maneuver ahead” on the performing arts middle, in response to the lawsuit.

(Prior was a Holy Cross trustee on the time of his donation, a place he held by means of June 2021.)

The lawsuit additionally says that the college demanded one other $7 million from Prior to finish the ability, which he refused to provide. Prior alleged that Holy Cross “spitefully” canceled a live performance in his honor in an effort to “humiliate” him when the Prior Performing Arts Middle opened in 2022, which the lawsuit states brought about the donor “important embarrassment and stress.”

Whereas the case has been slowly transferring by means of the authorized system, Holy Cross President Vincent D. Rougeau rebuffed the allegations as “unfaithful” in a letter to the campus group printed on Monday.

Rougeau argued that he believes “this matter is ruled by a written pledge settlement” signed in 2014 that “requires that we first work to resolve this matter privately by means of mediation or arbitration,” which is why the college had held off on responding publicly to the lawsuit.

He additionally disputed that the undertaking was delayed, noting that trustees—together with Prior—had agreed that two-thirds of the funds for the performing arts middle “should be raised earlier than the School may put shovels within the floor,” and Prior had pledged solely a part of the $109 million undertaking price.

Rougeau accused Prior of unfairly difficult “the integrity of the School” and trustees.

(This story has been up to date to incorporate the establishment’s correct title, School of the Holy Cross.)