Commentary

Wisnertrustfraught withpolitical,legal sleightofhand

FEW SUBJECTS ARE ASINCOMPREHENSIBLETOLAY PERSONS — ANDTOA GOOD MANYLAWYERS

and judges as well — as Louisiana’s Trust Code, unless one attempts to plumb the depths of Louisiana’s Mineral Code. Both bodies of law come into play in the New Orleans City Council’s recent lawsuit against Mayor LaToya Cantrell in her capacity as CEO of the Edward Wisner Donation, a mineral-rich land trust encompassing more than 40,000 acres in Lafourche, Jefferson and St. John the Baptist parishes. The trust owns much of the land beneath Port Fourchon, the energy industry’s busy gateway to vast offshore oil and gas leases.

The trust’s history would make great fodder for a John Grisham novel, for it is fraught with legal and political legerdemain beginning more than nine decades ago and continuing today.

Philanthropist Edward Wisner created the trust in 1914, a year before his death. He gave the City of New Orleans all the land and named the city as trustee but gave Tulane and Charity Hospital (now LSU Health Sciences Center) 20% each of the land’s revenues and the Salvation Army another 2%. That left the city with a 58% share of the revenues. Wisner also decreed that the trust would expire in 100 years.

Those and other provisions seem straightforward enough, but for the greed of heirs and the malleable principles of local politicians. For example, in 1929 then-Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley bowed to the pressures of Wisner’s widow and two daughters, giving them 40% — the largest share — of the trust’s revenues. Walmsley reduced the city’s take to 34.8% and Tulane and Charity’s share to 12% each; the Salvation Army’s already meager portion fell to 1.2%. It should surprise no one that a state court okayed that arrangement, even though it violated Wisner’s express wishes.

The political and legal machinations didn’t end there. The Widow Wisner and her daughters gave their attorneys a piece of the pie, and even though the trust specifically bars payments to “successors,” the modern-day Wisner heirs — and their attorneys — continued to receive royalties through the years.

All that should be of no moment today, given that Wisner set the trust to expire in 2014. Indeed, the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal held that the trust did, in fact, expire on August 4, 2014. That should have made the City of New Orleans sole owner of the Wisner land and all its revenues.

Yet, for reasons that remain imperceptible, then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu “temporarily” extended the trust multiple times, and in 2020 Cantrell quietly — and unilaterally — made it permanent. Both mayoral actions appear to violate not only the original terms of the trust but also an appellate court ruling.

The council suit says Cantrell also violated several city laws as well as Louisiana’s Constitution and Trust Code. A 2013 appraisal pegged the trust’s value at $114 million. Its leases generate up to $9 million a year, making it well worth fighting for. Hopefully, the courts will honor the 4th Circuit’s precedent — and Edward Wisner’s wishes — and declare the city sole owner and sole beneficiary of Wisner’s donation.

PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / THE TIME S-PICAYUNE The contestedEdwardWisner Donation owns much of the landbeneath Port Fourchon.

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