History Has A Hearing

For the last three weeks, we’ve been bringing you updates on a lawsuit making headlines across Texas. To get up to speed, read this article and this follow-up.

To summarize: History preservationist, Mr. J. P. Bryan, financially bailed out the Texas State Historical Association last year and was appointed Executive Director of that organization. In that role, he attempted to get the TSHA on a good financial and administrative footing, in the hopes that further financial crises could be averted. He pointed out that the board was not divided equally between academic and non-academic members, as required by the bylaws. The TSHA board availed itself of his generosity, but didn’t appreciate his performing the duties as Executive Director. After a period of internal unrest and an attempt at the 2023 annual meeting to correct the board imbalance, the current board president called an emergency meeting.

The most significant items on that meeting agenda were those that extended the expired contract of Chief Historian Walter Buenger without the review required by his contract and eliminated the position of Executive Director, eliminating Mr. Bryan in the process. So, he filed a lawsuit to prevent the improperly constituted board from acting.

After several continuances in the case, a hearing was held this morning in 10th District Court in Galveston.

Here’s what happened…

Mr. Bryan and Ms. Jones each testified and were cross-examined. Eric Lipper, the attorney for Mr. Bryan, stressed the clear definitions of “academic” and “non-academic” in the bylaws, and presented case law demonstrating that an improperly constituted board has no authority. He cited case law showing that an organization’s bylaws represent a legal contract that binds all board members.

For her part, Ms. Jones stated that the definitions of academic/non-academic provide the organization flexibility in choosing who will be nominated to the board from year to year, depending upon the needs of the membership.

At the end of it all, Judge Kerry Neves agreed with Mr. Lipper’s plea for an injunction and he granted it.

This means that the board of the Texas State Historical Association may not conduct any business on behalf of the organization while the injunction is in place. A jury trial date has been set for September 11, 2023.

Meanwhile, the employees of the TSHA will continue to keep the Handbook of Texas up and running, and the other day-to-day functions of the organization will continue unhampered. How the imbalance of the board will be corrected will be subject to the power of the court at the trial in September.

Through the efforts of Mr. Bryan, we may yet see a day when all Texans again find something of interest to them in TSHA’s publications and conferences. Much can happen between now and September, though. Rest assured we’ll keep you posted.