San Francisco Chronicle, Judge Tosses Potential $1.7B Lawsuit Challenging Removal of Hastings’ Name From S.F. Law School:
A judge found that an 1878 California law saying the state’s law school in San Francisco “shall forever be known” as Hastings College of the Law was not a binding contract, but simply an ordinary statute that future lawmakers were free to amend or repeal.
That means the state did not violate a binding promise to Serranus Hastings by changing the school’s name last year to the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer said Tuesday. The change was based on evidence that Hastings had ordered troops to slaughter thousands of Native Americans in the 1860s. The suit by Hastings’ descendants sought $1.7 billion in damages and interest.
The law “ ‘authorized’ S.C. Hastings to found the law college” in his name but did not bind the state to keep his name attached permanently and was “not cast in covenanting language,” Ulmer said in a ruling dismissing the lawsuit.
While the 1878 law committed Serranus Hastings to pay the state $100,000 to establish the school, Ulmer said, there was no evidence that the payment was intended to keep his name on the school.
