Theta Alpha House at Samford University in Birmingham sits somewhat isolated on the north side of campus only steps away from Saulter Road. A straight line can be drawn from the front porch down beside the school of education, through the athletic fields and to the secondary entrance gate off Lakeshore Parkway.
It currently serves as a residence hall for students, but the 52-year-old facility was originally built by alumni as a fraternity house before it ended up shouldering more than a decade of dispute regarding its ownership and purpose. The disagreements eventually turned to legal action in 2022 and a lawsuit that went all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court.
In the end, the ruling landed in Samford’s favor earlier this year (July 2023) and the options for appeals have run out for plaintiff and Samford alum (class of 1972) James L. “Jim” Hart of Vestavia Hills.
“It remains to be seen whether my personal losses or those of the property owner will ever be resolved,” Hart shared with The Alabama Baptist in December. “There will not ever be another instance like ours since Samford now owns every square inch of its campus.
“I will die as both an honored alumnus and an expelled one pursuant to Samford’s express actions.”
Samford’s communication policy prevents officials from commenting on legal matters, but details from Samford’s motion to dismiss document argue Hart did not have the authority to bring the suit and that, even if he did, the statute of limitations had run out. The court agreed and also affirmed that Samford is the legal owner of the property.
Theta Alpha House
Hart, a retired certified public accountant with experience in forensic accounting, received the Brock School of Business distinguished alumnus award in 2006, but it’s his extremely personal tie to the Theta Alpha House that changed his relationship with his alma mater a few years later.
The Theta Alpha House was built for Samford’s Theta Alpha Zeta chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha, which reports its beginnings as dating back to 1919 on Samford’s original Howard College campus in East Lake. Current maps of the Homewood campus refer to it as Theta Alpha House in some cases and Lambda Chi Alpha House in other cases.
Lambda Chi Alpha — which promotes an historic (more than a century) “international stance against hazing” on its website — remains one of the current 14 fraternities and sororities at Samford. While eight Greek organizations reportedly have houses on campus, Lambda Chi Alpha members haven’t resided in the Theta Alpha House since 2012 following a December 2011 hazing infraction.
That’s when Lambda Chi Alpha’s Samford chapter was suspended for about 14 months to serve out a rehabilitation period and discussions over how to handle the property began.
Hart writes on a GoFundMe page created March 30, 2022, to raise money for his effort that he helped build and fund the house in 1971. “The property never belonged to the University, and I had to sue on behalf of its true nonprofit owner that I helped lead for 4 decades,” Hart wrote.
Court documents indicate Hart was initiated into Lambda Chi Alpha in 1970 by the Theta Alpha Zeta chapter at Samford but was expelled from the fraternity in 2012 and has never regained membership since the expulsion.
Theta Alpha Zeta House Corporation
Hart was part of the group — Theta Alpha Zeta House Corporation — that originally owned the house but lost his status and standing once expelled from the fraternity. The reasoning for Hart being expelled is unclear from the fraternity records included with the court documents, but Hart indicates he and the alleged two other alumni removed as house corporation officers were the three requesting Samford purchase the property rather than acquire it. The Alabama Baptist has not had an opportunity to interview the other two former officers and they have not released any public comments.
Hart, the lone individual plaintiff in the case, also says proper notification regarding provisions of the planned property transfer in 2012 were not followed, thus not providing him and the others an opportunity to formally object.
House corporations are a common approach to Greek life housing on college campuses. While Samford no longer has any outside groups owning property on campus, other universities take a varied approach.
For instance, the University of Alabama only operates seven of its 49 Greek houses, with the remaining chapter houses being operated by individual house corporations. Auburn University has a mixture of some university-owned houses on campus and other privately owned homes near campus.
At the University of Southern California, all 25 fraternity and sorority houses are privately owned, located near but not on campus and managed through either a local or national housing corporation.
Mediation agreement
Samford legally acquired ownership of the Theta Alpha House following a mediation agreement, according to Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Jim Hughey III in his Aug. 4, 2022, order of dismissal for the Hart case.
“On March 7, 2012, the House Corporation and Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity entered a written mediation agreement with Samford University in which the House Corporation canceled its ground lease and ceded its ownership of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity house to Samford University,” Hughey wrote.
While court documents indicate Hart was aware of the mediation agreement during the timeframe it was finalized, he didn’t file his lawsuit until a decade later.
He said he waited because he believed the matter of what he described as a “fraudulent transfer of property” could be worked out in discussions with university leadership.
“Certainly, nobody wants to sue their once beloved alma mater,” Hart said in a 2022 globenewswire.com press release. “However, we were left with no option.”
Final ruling
Hart filed suit Feb. 16, 2022, and Samford filed the motion to dismiss May 27. Hart filed his response to the motion July 6, and Hughey ruled in favor of the dismissal Aug. 4. On Sept. 19, Hughey denied Hart’s request for the final order to be changed, so Hart submitted his appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court on Oct. 26. The affirmation of Hughey’s ruling came down July 7, 2023.
Hughey’s reasoning included the fact that Hart is not an attorney and thus could not represent a corporate entity in court per Alabama law, that he had no standing with the house corporation nor the fraternity and that the claims were “time-barred at the time this lawsuit was filed.”
The ruling was upheld by the Alabama Supreme Court.
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