The Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation will be going it alone in the legal battle to protect a statue of Robert E. Lee formerly displayed in Charlottesville’s Market Street Park.
Its partner in the legal action, the Ratcliffe Foundation, was eliminated from the case by a judge last week.
The Ratcliffe Foundation appeared before the court in April to address the fact that the Ratcliffe Foundation that exists today is a new legal entity. The motion before the court was to allow the “new” Ratcliffe to substitute for the “original” Ratcliffe.
The reason there is a ”new” Ratcliffe looking to enter the case is because the foundation’s corporate status with the state expired in 2015. Foundations are required by law to re-submit incorporation paperwork periodically to remain registered with the state. It was an administrative error, Fred Harman, a Tazewell attorney and Ratcliffe board member, testified during the April hearing. But it meant that the group technically did not exist as a legal entity when it sued the city in 2021, the city’s lawyers argued.
The next hearing in the case, a status hearing, is scheduled for June 27. No new trial date has been set.
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More about the lawsuit over the Lee statue
The delayed Robert E. Lee statue trial might be losing a plaintiff
One of the attorneys for the Ratcliffe Foundation said he forgot to file papers to incorporate before they sued Charlottesville.
Confederate groups may once again stall Charlottesville’s plans for the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee
Five years after white supremacists rallied around Charlottesville’s Lee statue, Confederate legacy groups have sued the city in an effort to stop the Swords Into Plowshares project.
Charlottesville’s Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee will be melted down
Charlottesville City Council has voted to donate its statue of Robert E. Lee to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.
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