Monday, Jan. 12, 2009

Legal questions linger over what to do with Laurel Hill Plantation

After his death in 1984, John Muller’s will gave ambiguous instructions about what to do with his Charleston properties and Laurel Hill Plantation. The courts system will likely decide whether selling a portion of Laurel Hill is allowable.

Twenty-five years after Charleston preservationist John Muller's death, people still are trying to figure out how to carry out his final wishes.

Some say Muller, who worked passionately to preserve historic properties on the peninsula, wanted his 781-acre Laurel Hill Plantation in Mount Pleasant to remain as it is.

But two beneficiary groups that were expecting to get charitable money through Muller's properties are eyeing the recent housing sprawl that now surrounds the massive tract, near where U.S. Highway 17 and S.C. Highway 41 meet.

Lawyers for Newberry College and the Franke Home, which were named in the will as beneficiaries, say Mount Pleasant's growth makes the land ripe for development, and they contend that some of the plantation could be sold while still being respectful of Muller's will.

Partial development of the site could help the groups, which have complained about receiving little money from Muller's properties since 1984, tap into potentially millions of dollars to help their causes.

"Nobody is suggesting that the real pretty part of that plantation should be touched," said Mount Pleasant lawyer Ellison Smith, who represents Newberry College. "And everybody agrees that those portions of the plantation need to be preserved, but there needs to be enhanced public access because that's what this man wanted. For all intents and purposes, there is no public access."

Wachovia Bank, which is charged with administering the estate, is asking a court to decide whether a portion of the plantation could be sold for development.

War of wills

Before his death and burial at Laurel Hill in late 1984, Muller was a postal worker and was active within the Preservation Society of Charleston. He was elected as the organization's president in 1959, and 10 years later, when the group created the position of executive director, he was the first to fill that slot. He also served as a trustee of the Historic Charleston Foundation.

Muller, who attended Newberry and would have turned 100 this past November, renovated several buildings in downtown Charleston, and a handful of homes on Archdale Street are still rented out in his trust's name. He never married or had children.

Muller's will gave instructions on how the trustee, South Carolina National Bank, which later became part of Wachovia, should administer his assets after his death.

About Laurel Hill, he wrote: "It is my will and desire that my Trustee shall cause Laurel Hill Plantation to be maintained in a natural state insofar as possible ... and that the property is generally kept in such a condition so as to make it an enjoyable place of natural, undeveloped beauty to those who may visit it."

Any extra money generated by Laurel Hill, which is occasionally harvested for timber, and the Archdale properties were meant to go to Newberry and Franke Home's administrator, the Evangelical Lutheran Charities Society of Charleston.

But both groups have complained about seeing little money from the trust, and they say that the sale of some Laurel Hill land, which they estimate to be worth more than $100 million, could generate valuable funds.

Smith said the money would be especially helpful during the current economic woes.

"Since banks and other lenders have cut way back on student loans, the only financial assistance a student can get is in the form of a scholarship," he said.

Tuition rates also have climbed dramatically since the days of Muller's death, when the cost of an education, housing and food at Newberry was roughly $7,300 a year. The value of a full scholarship in 2007 was $27,781.

The college established a scholarship in Muller's name for music and pre-seminary students, but the award is hardly funded, school officials said.

In his will, Muller doesn't specifically address whether the land could be sold, leaving Franke, Newberry, the trust administrator and the court to speculate. The issue flared up briefly about eight years ago, when the Charleston County School District asked whether it could buy part of the property for a new high school. The idea was later dropped.

More recently, Wachovia went back to court in late 2005 to determine asking whether, based on the will's wording, a land sale was possible.

Newberry and Franke representatives argued in legal documents that the property could be sold without "adversely infringing upon Mr. Muller's intent." In 2007, they hired local land planner David Russell Seamon to visit the property. He later supported the group's assertion.

Seamon proposed keeping about two-thirds of the land preserved while developing several small boroughs in the section closer to Highway 17, which already runs up against subdivisions of newly built homes. The development could be separated by natural areas that could serve as "wildlife corridors," he testified.

Seamon didn't give an estimate of how many homes could be built on the property.

Development could enhance access to the property with walking trails, allowing even more people to enjoy the plantation, he said.

"It's sitting out there as a nature preserve, but it's not used by many people," Seamon told The Post and Courier.

Private property

Laurel Hill Plantation is a mix of forest and lush wetlands connected by a few trails. Near the center of the property sits an overgrown foundation of the original plantation house, which is said to have burned after the Civil War.

The plantation's avenue of oaks is still intact, and the only remaining structure on the property is a small house for the couple that maintains the property.

But the beauty of the plantation, its border marked by more than 100 signs that warn against trespassing, is enjoyed only by a few groups, such as Boy Scout troops. It is by no means public property.

Plantation caretaker Alton Fort approaches his job of patrolling the land seriously. Armed with a handgun and his volunteer Department of Natural Resources badge, he said he routinely kicks trespassers off the property.

Josh Dunn, a spokesman for Wachovia, said that the land is closely guarded for liability reasons.

"There are liability issues and access must be controlled," Dunn said in an e-mail. "We have met with municipal and state organizations over the years with the goal of enhancing the property with passive infrastructure, resulting in furthered access and a safe environment."

Whether the Muller trust is meant to make money was an issue taken up by the state Supreme Court in 1997, after the beneficiaries complained that the preservation of the Archdale Street properties didn't offer enough public benefit to qualify as a charitable trust.

The high court ruled in favor of keeping the properties as a charitable trust, which was heralded at the time as a victory for the preservationist movement.

Lawyers for Newberry and the Franke Home argued then, as they are now, that if Muller didn't want the groups to benefit financially, he wouldn't have named them in the will.

State Attorney General Henry McMaster disagrees. In the ongoing lawsuit, he issued an opinion criticizing Newberry and Franke.

"The income beneficiaries are once again attacking the Muller trust," he wrote, later calling the groups' want to extract money from the property "irrelevant."

McMaster, through his position, has the authority to comment on matters involving charitable trusts.

The litigation surrounding Laurel Hill is entering its fourth year, and current rulings are almost certainly headed to higher courts. Charleston County's Master-in-Equity Judge Mikell Scarborough wrote an opinion last fall that, in part, supported McMaster's assertions.

Lawyers for the Franke Home and Newberry College have asked Scarborough to reconsider.

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