Harvard loses $15 million lawsuit over affirmative action legal expenses

Harvard loses $15 million lawsuit over affirmative action legal expenses
Harvard University's Memorial Hall. Wikipedia. By chensiyuan - chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

For universities, the sky is the limit when it comes to spending tons of money on defending their race-based college admissions policies. The University of Michigan spent $95 million on its mostly successful defense of its affirmative-action policies two decades ago, which led to the Supreme Court upholding the admissions policy of its law school, but striking down the admissions policy of its College of Arts and Sciences. (By contrast, the class of white and Asian students suing the University of Michigan collected less than $4 million in attorneys fees from the University of Michigan based on their victory against the College of Arts and Sciences).

Harvard University was similarly sued recently over its race-based admissions policy, which discriminates against Asian and to a lesser extent white students. Press reports suggest the Supreme Court will strike down that policy for considering race too much. Harvard has spent tens of millions of dollars on lawyers, expert witnesses, and public relations. But it won’t be able to get its insurer to cover much of that cost, the way the University of Michigan got an insurer to cover virtually all of the $95 million the University of Michigan spent in its defense of its admissions policies.

That’s because the geniuses at Harvard failed to do something incredibly simple — notify their insurer in a timely way when they got sued. They ignored the language in their insurance contract requiring them to inform the insurer about lawsuits filed against it. The College Fix reports:

Harvard University lost a federal lawsuit against an insurance company and will likely need to absorb $15 million in additional legal fees related to its racial quota system.

The Ivy League institution failed to inform Zurich American Insurance Company within the required 90 day period in order to have it pick up the costs of its lawsuit with Students for Fair Admissions, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Harvard purchased two insurance policies in 2014, “one with the American International Group which covered its first $25 million in legal fees and a second excess policy with Zurich to cover additional costs of up to $15 million,” The Harvard Crimson reported.

The ruling came two days after the university argued in favor of its racial quota system in front of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Judge Allison Burroughs granted summary judgment to Zurich American because Harvard clearly failed to notify the company in time.

“Zurich argued in legal filings that its policy would only kick in if Harvard notified the firm within 90 days of the first policy reaching its cap,” The Crimson reported. “But the University failed to provide notice until May 2017 — 17 months after its deadline.”

“Harvard conceded in filings that it did not give official notice to Zurich until May 2017, but lawyers for the school argued that because its litigation with SFFA was so widely covered, the firm must have been aware the policy would kick in — and, in turn, should be made to pay,” the student newspaper reported.

The ruling is the latest bad news for Harvard related to the Supreme Court case, as the conservative majority appeared ready to strike down its admissions system, which critics argue discriminates against Asian students.

LU Staff

LU Staff

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