Suit Filed to Block Westlake-Harvard Merger

A group of mothers opposing the merger of their daughters’ exclusive Westlake School with the equally prestigious Harvard School, filed a lawsuit Friday in an effort to block the union that would create a new coed institution.

Attorneys for the four “Westlake Mothers” are seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent a final vote on the controversial merger set for Nov. 27.

The lawsuit was filed in Santa Monica Superior Court but was transferred downtown late Friday when a judge disqualified himself after being informed that a judicial colleague in Santa Monica has daughters at Westlake and actively opposes the merger. A hearing is set for Monday morning.

The legal action is based in part on a claim that it is a breach of charitable trust to change the school from girls only, non-sectarian to a coed school under the jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church.

“Not only would Westlake’s assets come under immediate, direct control of the Episcopal Church, but the assets could be irretrievably subject to eventual distribution to a ‘religious’ institution,” wrote the mothers’ attorney, Karen Kaplowitz, in her request for court intercession.

Attorneys for the Westlake board contend it is acting in good faith and that the parents have no legal standing to interfere with the proposed merger. Karl Samuelian, one of the board’s attorneys, said the only purpose he can see in the lawsuit is to “cause anxiety, confuse and harass the Board of Trustees . . . to try to influence their vote.”

The “Westlake Mothers” are four members of a large contingent of parents involved in an acrimonious battle to stop the proposed merger announced without warning in October. They view the merger as an acquisition of the prestigious Holmby Hills girls junior and senior high school by its equally prestigious male counterpart in Studio City.

In addition to their preference for girls-only education, parents are opposed to turning over a $50-million piece of property to Harvard, which will have a 2-1 majority on the board of the new school, Harvard-Westlake.

Kaplowitz wants a hearing on the rationale for the merger, which board members said was based on a “window of opportunity” to join Harvard before it went coed on its own. In their opinion, a coed Harvard would siphon off some of Westlake’s top students, leading to financial peril.

The board’s attorneys are asking that all 230 Los Angeles county Superior Court judges be disqualified because of Superior Court Judge Robert Altman’s outspoken opposition to the merger.

Assistant Superior Court Presiding Judge Ricardo Torres will take up the matter Monday.