Judge to Rule by April 20
Will St. Margaret’s Get Its Day in Court?
A pivotal legal moment is before the Essex County Circuit Court: does the community that built St. Margaret's School get its day in court or does the organization that controls it get to walk away unchallenged?
Judge John Martin has indicated he will issue a written decision by April 20, following the April 7 hearing on a motion filed by the Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia (CSDV) asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit before it even begins. A ruling for the plaintiffs means the case moves forward with a tentative court hearing date of April 29. A ruling in favor of CSDV means dismissal, and the campus sale could proceed unchallenged.
In the courtroom, CSDV's attorney argued that the organization has the legal authority to "do whatever it wants" with St. Margaret's, claiming that CSDV and the school are legally "one and the same." To illustrate this point, he drew a comparison to Coca-Cola's 2020 decision to discontinue Northern Neck Ginger Ale, a regionally beloved beverage that was bottled near St. Margaret's. The attorney argued that just as Coca-Cola was legally entitled to pull the popular drink from grocery store shelves in order to reduce competition and strengthen its other product lines, CSDV has the same authority to make decisions about St. Margaret's regardless of the school's history, community ties, or the wishes of those who supported it.
St. Margaret’s attorney Chap Petersen reflected, “The analogy was meant to justify CSDV's legal authority. Instead, it confirmed precisely what this community already knows: CSDV Trustees with no ties to St. Margaret’s School and Tappahannock are making boardroom decisions to erase a 104-year-old institution just as Coca-Cola erased a regional treasure it never truly understood or valued.”
Petersen continued, “CSDV cannot behave like a trustee for 100 years, i.e. holding funds for an all-girls’ school in Tappahannock, and then claim in court that the trust never existed. Under its Bylaws, CSDV maintained a separate school board and foundation specifically for St. Margaret’s. It solicited charitable donations under specific conditions and administered them through a system of shared governance. Virginia statutory and case law recognizes that when that occurs, the assets are held in trust for that designated purpose and no other.”
He continued, “The alumnae of St. Margaret’s, people of Tappahannock, Essex County, and the broader Northern Neck region built this school. They donated to it. They sent their daughters to it. They worked there. And they were promised that their gifts would serve one purpose: the education of young women at that historic campus in Tappahannock, Virginia. They are simply asking for the Court to let the case go forward.”
