Claremont School of Theology ordered to offer land to neighboring colleges
According to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Claremont School of Theology must offer its Claremont, California, campus for sale to the Claremont Colleges, a neighboring consortium of schools—and for a price likely to be millions below fair market value.
The financially embattled United Methodist seminary has long been willing to sell its 16.4-acre campus near Los Angeles. But seminary leaders insisted on getting a fair market price, which they put at about $40 million.
During litigation that has gone on for years, the Claremont Colleges have stressed a 1957 legal agreement reached when the consortium sold the seminary land to relocate in Claremont. The agreement gave the consortium a repurchase right if the seminary ever put the land up for sale—and under a formula that guarantees a price far below what the seminary has been saying it needs to right itself financially.
