A judge ruled on Wednesday the Sons of Confederate Veterans will not have to give back the entire $2.5 million sum placed in a trust by the University of North Carolina System as part of the settlement over the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam.

In February, Orange County superior court judge Allen Baddour changed his ruling in a lawsuit between the pro-Confederate group and the university system, saying the SCV did not have standing to file the lawsuit. He requested a review of the spending the SCV had already made from the trust, which is to be dissolved once the money is returned to the UNC System.

On Wednesday, Baddour said the $82,000 spent on legal fees and accounting services by the SCV were reasonable to use from the trust fund and ruled the group would not have to repay the amount back to the UNC System. The remaining $2.42 million must be returned to the university system within ten days. The funds will then be returned to UNC-Chapel Hill, the initial source of the money for the settlement.

Another element yet to be returned to the university: the Confederate monument itself. In February, Baddour said the SCV were required to return the statue in 45 days. On Wednesday, he granted an extension of that, setting a May 5 deadline due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The initial settlement between the Sons of Confederate Veterans and UNC System happened after the SCV filed a lawsuit in November claiming the system violated North Carolina’s law against the removal of objects of remembrance. Court documents later showed UNC System leadership signed approval of the settlement ahead of the SCV’s lawsuit being filed.

While Baddour initially ruled in favor of the settlement and presided over the case, an affidavit later filed by a UNC historian later revealed historical evidence that the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who transferred their believed rights to the monument to the SCV, failed to raise the sufficient funds to construct the monument. Instead, university president Francis Venable began his own fundraising to pay for it during the early 1910s. Baddour did not give any particular reasoning behind his decision to overturn the settlement when he made his February ruling.

Both UNC System leadership and UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz have said they have no plans to return Silent Sam to UNC’s campus.

 

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