The heirs of philanthropist Edward Wisner have lost their latest courtroom fight against Mayor Landrieu.
The Wisner heirs had sought to continue financial control of the Wisner Donation Fund, an almost 100-year-old trust that manages 52,000 acres of coastline in Jefferson, Lafourche and St. John parishes.
Edward Wisner established the fund in 1914 to help support some of his favorite charities for the next 100 years. Civil District Judge Pro Tempore Melvin Zeno ruled last year that the trust should dissolve on its 100th anniversary — on Aug. 4, 2014.
NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reports a panel of five appeals court judges unanimously agreed with Zeno on Friday. They ruled that Mayor Mitch Landrieu is the fund's proper trustee under state law.