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Thursday, August 24, 2006
Ind. Courts - More on the Ruth Lilly oral arguments
Court of Appeals Judge John Baker's comments during the oral arguments in the case of Americans for the Arts v. The Ruth Lilly Trust, et al. earlier this week, as reported in the Indianapolis Star and picked up here in the ILB, have been published in a number of out-of-state papers. This afternoon the WSJ Law Blog has a post titled "Judge Thinks Lilly Trust Dispute Isn’t Very Poetic." Some quotes:
“If there’s no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.”–Robert Graves
That was the epigraph of a 2003 WSJ page-one story detailing how a $100 million donation to Poetry Magazine from pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly was “sowing discord in the normally harmonious realm of verse.” The money had roiled the tiny publication: Among other un-poet-like moves, it sued a bank over the mismanagement of funds.
On Tuesday, an Indiana appeals court heard arguments in that case from the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation (home of the magazine) and the Washington-based Americans for the Arts, parties squabbling with National City Bank of Indiana over the 91-year-old Lilly’s estate. * * *
Because most of the coin won’t arrive until Lilly’s death, the two charities are fighting over the many millions before it’s even theirs. “If you have a gift horse,” scolded Judge John Baker, “keep your mouth shut.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 24, 2006 05:16 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts