Appeals court ruling may put end to legal battle over WCAL sale

The long-running legal argument over whether St. Olaf College was within its rights to sell its FCC radio license for WCAL to Minnesota Public Radio, paving the way for the creation of The Current, appears to be at an end.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision, saying that SaveWCAL, the group organized to turn back the sale, waited too long to begin its legal action -- the group wasn't even organized until September 3, 2004, about a month after St. Olaf and MPR closed the deal.

From the decision, via MPR:

We acknowledge and respect the loyalty and devotion that SaveWCAL has shown to this radio station. We also recognize that our decision may be unpopular. Nevertheless, we are obligated to follow the law. The district court did not abuse its discretion by concluding that even if SaveWCAL's breach-of-charitable-trust claim had merit and SaveWCAL had standing to pursue the claim, SaveWCAL waited too long to commence an action to set aside the sale of WCAL.