BROCKTON, Mass., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Almost 200 years after President John Adams died, his will is the subject of a court fight, with a private school suing his home town of Quincy, Mass.
The Woodward School for Girls says Quincy has mishandled a trust set up under Adams' will and has shorted it millions of dollars in payments, the Boston Globe reported. Quincy denies the claims.
When Adams died July 4, 1826, he left land to be used to start a school, which was eventually used to found Adams Academy, a boys' institution. While Woodward was founded in 1894 as a sister school to the academy, it has only been getting money from the trust since 1953 when a court ruled that it could be a stand-in for the academy, which had closed in 1907.
The city denies any wrongdoing and says Woodward's lawsuit was filed too late.
"It's unfortunate that trusts set up for the benefit of the people of Quincy are now being used as weapons against the city,'' Paul Hines, assistant city solicitor, told the Globe. "I think the president could be doing a cartwheel in his grave".
The trial began this week in district court in Brockton.
UPI
