UW-Madison has decided not to pursue $100,000 originally promised to the university as part of a donor's estate to which his daughter claimed as her rightful inheritance, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Harold Mennes left approximately $800,000 of his estate to the university, but his daughter claimed a letter he wrote and signed in the presence of two witnesses sufficed as a legal basis for her claim. The funds intended for the University of Wisconsin Foundation, the fund-raising organization of the university, would have gone into a scholarship fund for undergraduate engineering students.
Russell Howes, UW Foundation vice president for legal affairs, said the UW Foundation abandoned its pursuit of the money because of the rising legal costs associated with it.
""It frankly sort of reaches a point where the expenses of litigation and what it was going to continue to cost in order to pursue that claim ... is more than what you could possibly get out of it,"" said Howes. ""It's just simply not economic.""
In addition to leaving the $100,000 to Mary Ellen Jensen, the university consented to paying her attorney fees amounting to $34,000.
Howes explained the foundation's pursuit of the funds, saying the will ""left very clearly the entire estate to the Foundation.""
""We felt that the claim that was placed, while sympathetic for a situation where someone has essentially disinherited their children, ... was [not] a valid legal codicil to the will at all,"" he said.
Howes said that it is the Foundation's responsibility to pursue the estate intended for the university even if it causes the foundation to appear stingy or aggressive.
""The image that we want is that we will do what is necessary as much as we possibly can to enforce donor intent,"" said Howes. ""We feel very strongly that we were defending the intent that [Mennes] had stated in that legal document.""
