After the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled the New Orleans City Council has standing to challenge the mayor's extending the Wisner Trust, the council is moving to the next phase: continuing its court action to have the trust declared expired and its proceeds directed to the city's general fund.
"Given that the Fourth Circuit has ruled on this already, it was very clearly litigated, everybody had a right to participate on that, we're going to win on that issue," New Orleans City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso told WWL's Newell Normand.
In 1914, Edward Wisner bequeathed thousands of acres of land in southeastern Louisiana to the city of New Orleans, to be held in a trust that divided proceeds between the city and other beneficiaries.
That trust expired in 2014. Then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and Mayor LaToya Cantrell later on, extended the agreement which continued to split money between the city and the descendents of Wisner's heirs.
"You know what's disappointing is that there's a group of recipients, right, receiving this money really contrary to Edward Wisner's desires," Newell pointed out. "He never contemplated a good number of these people ever receiving any proceeds from his trust."
The council argues those agreements are not valid, because they were not made with council approval, and the body further argues that once the trust expired, the city of New Orleans became the sole beneficiary of the Wisner proceeds.
The land generates millions of dollars, as it includes the lease for Port Fourchon in Lafourche Parish.
The ruling is not the final word on the Wisner issue, but it means the council can proceed with its legal action to force 100 percent of the Wisner land's proceeds to go to the city of New Orleans.
