Barclay Estate Owes Theater, Suit Claims

The UC Irvine Foundation, the city of Irvine and the Irvine Barclay Theatre filed suit Friday against Marjorie A. Barclay and the estate of her husband, charging the family has failed to pay $600,000 of the $1 million pledged to the theater that bears their name.

In 1990, the Barclays announced the pledge to help complete construction of the 750-seat theater, set on a 2.3-acre site on the UCI campus. At that time, grateful theater officials announced that the $17.6-million facility would be named for Richard Barclay, a Newport Beach real estate developer.

The theater company is supported by the university and the city.

According to the lawsuit, the Barclays made two payments of $200,000 toward their pledge, to the UCI Foundation, in June, 1990, and June, 1991.

Richard Barclay died in June, 1992, and since then, the suit alleges, no further payments have been made.

Attorneys for the Barclay estate and family members could not be reached for comment Friday.

UCI spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said the foundation has made repeated attempts to negotiate payment of the $600,000 without success.

“According to legal documents, there is sufficient money in the estate to honor the pledge,” she said.

Failure to honor the pledge, she said, “is not fair to other donors who didn’t have an opportunity to have something named after them.”