A judge ordered a temporary hold on UCLA’s plans to sell the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel Air, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
The Los Angeles Superior Court Judge said in her ruling Friday that the university is contractually obligated to keep the garden.
UCLA said it would postpone the process of accepting bids for the garden. The minimum bid was set at $5.7 million for the garden and $9 million for a nearby house that was gifted with the garden, the L.A. Times reported. The opening of bids was set for August.
In November, UCLA announced plans to auction off the garden, donated in 1965 by Hannah Carter and her husband, former UC Regents Chair Edward Carter. The announcement sparked calls for the garden’s protection by conservation groups and the UCLA community.
Hannah Carter’s heirs filed a lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents in May, claiming the regents reportedly violated an agreement to maintain the Bel Air garden in perpetuity. The heirs are suing to block the sale of the garden and force UCLA to abide by the agreement to preserve the garden.
A judge initially rejected the heirs’ request for a temporary restraining order filed to block the sale in mid-May. Walter Moore, an attorney for the heirs, told the Daily Bruin in May they planned on filing a motion to stop the garden’s sale, which the judge would have more time to review in the future.
On Friday, the judge said UCLA’s failure to notify the heirs about selling the garden was dishonest, the L.A. Times reported.
“This is very important,” Moore told the L.A. Times on Friday. “This ruling preserves this unique, culturally significant work of art “¦ so that the case can go on.”
In a February editorial in the Daily Bruin, Chancellor Gene Block said the garden does not serve a teaching or research purpose, and has been accompanied by increasing maintenance costs and issues surrounding parking availability.
“The university believes that resources are best directed toward our academic mission and not toward a garden that serves no teaching or research purpose,” said university spokesman Phil Hampton to the L.A. Times on Friday.
Compiled by Erin Donnelly, Bruin senior staff.