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1997 Connecticut Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (1997)

handle is hein.sag/sagct0016 and id is 1 raw text is: 1997 Formal Opinion, Attorney General of Connecticut

Attorney General's Opinion
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
January 10, 1997
John F. Anderson
Director
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
123 Huntington Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06504
Dear Dr. Anderson:
This letter is written in response to your request, on behalf of the Connecticut Agricultural
Experiment Station 1 (the Station), for an opinion concerning several legal questions arising out
of a recent report by the Auditors of Public Accounts. The report questioned the propriety of how
the Board of the Station (the Board) had managed four private charitable trusts. The Board is
the trustee for three of the funds, and is the beneficiary of the fourth fund. Specifically, you have
set out the following questions:
1. Does Conn. Gen. Stat. * 4-33 require that the fiduciary funds be treated in accordance
with the requirements of that section? Is the Board required to report information pertaining to the
fiduciary funds to the State Comptroller?
2. Does the Board, in its capacity as trustee, have authority (a) to retain private legal counsel
to it as trustee, and to the trust, without the approval of the Attorney General and (b) to purchase
insurance for the trusts without the approval of the State Insurance Purchasing Board?
3. Did the Board, acting as trustee of the Jones Fund, have the authority to form Linconn,
Inc.? If not, what should the Board now do?
For the reasons set out below, it is our opinion that the Board, in its capacity as trustee, had
authority to retain private legal counsel, purchase insurance, and form Linconn, Inc. With respect
to the first question, the answer depends on whether the funds in question are held by the Board
as trustee, or received by the Station as a beneficiary.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND: THE TRUST INSTRUMENTS
Your questions relate to four different trust funds: The Lockwood Trust, the Samuel

1997-001   Page 1 of 8

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