A Davidson County Chancellor has asked the Tennessee Baptist Convention to show what evidence it has that shows it’s given Belmont University 58-million dollars since 1951.
The TBC is suing the school to get that money back after Belmont Trustees voted in 2005 to add non-Baptist board members.
When asked, the TBC hadn’t previously handed over the documents. Attorney Randle Davis says they didn’t see the point.
“We don’t know how far back those go until we go to the bank, check our records and find out. The checks, however, are not something Belmont hasn’t already seen because they cashed them all.”
Belmont attorneys want to see the checks and the convention budgets because they’re trying to discredit a line in an agreement signed by both parties in 1951. It says that all Baptist funds would return to the convention if the school decides to go its own way.
Belmont counsel Bob Walker says he doesn’t think anyone knew about this historical document and weren’t giving the money all this time conditionally.
“We want to see the documentation of those gifts, what was written on them, what conditions may have been stated, may not have been stated, all the information that you would see that you would see that attends a major gift of money to a university.”
Both sides appeared at a pre-trial hearing Friday. They’re taking depositions this month, preparing for a full trial in May. Mediation efforts broke down last month, but both the school and the convention attorneys say they’re still open to settlement talks.
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