The Florida Senate

1001.73  University board empowered to act as trustee.--

(1)  Whenever appointed by any competent court of the state, or by any statute, or in any will, deed, or other instrument, or in any manner whatever as trustee of any funds or real or personal property in which any of the institutions or agencies under its management, control, or supervision, or their departments or branches or students, faculty members, officers, or employees, may be interested as beneficiaries, or otherwise, or for any educational purpose, a university board of trustees is hereby authorized to act as trustee with full legal capacity as trustee to administer such trust property, and the title thereto shall vest in said board as trustee. In all such cases, the university board of trustees shall have the power and capacity to do and perform all things as fully as any individual trustee or other competent trustee might do or perform, and with the same rights, privileges, and duties, including the power, capacity, and authority to convey, transfer, mortgage, or pledge such property held in trust and to contract and execute all other documents relating to said trust property which may be required for, or appropriate to, the administration of such trust or to accomplish the purposes of any such trust.

(2)  Deeds, mortgages, leases, and other contracts of the university board of trustees relating to real property of any such trust or any interest therein may be executed by the university board of trustees, as trustee, in the same manner as is provided by the laws of the state for the execution of similar documents by other corporations or may be executed by the signatures of a majority of the members of the board of trustees; however, to be effective, any such deed, mortgage, or lease contract for more than 10 years of any trust property, executed hereafter by the university board of trustees, shall be approved by a resolution of the State Board of Education; and such approving resolution may be evidenced by the signature of either the chair or the secretary of the State Board of Education to an endorsement on the instrument approved, reciting the date of such approval, and bearing the seal of the State Board of Education. Such signed and sealed endorsement shall be a part of the instrument and entitled to record without further proof.

(3)  Any and all such appointments of, and acts by, the ¹Board of Regents as trustee of any estate, fund, or property prior to May 18, 1949, are hereby validated, and said board's capacity and authority to act as trustee subject to the provisions of s. 1000.01(5)(a) in all of such cases is ratified and confirmed; and all deeds, conveyances, lease contracts, and other contracts heretofore executed by the ¹Board of Regents, either by the signatures of a majority of the members of the board or in the board's name by its chair or chief executive officer, are hereby approved, ratified, confirmed, and validated.

(4)  Nothing herein shall be construed to authorize a university board of trustees to contract a debt on behalf of, or in any way to obligate, the state; and the satisfaction of any debt or obligation incurred by the university board as trustee under the provisions of this section shall be exclusively from the trust property, mortgaged or encumbered; and nothing herein shall in any manner affect or relate to the provisions of ss. 1010.61-1010.619 or s. 1013.78

History.--s. 85, ch. 2002-387.

¹Note.--Abolished by s. 3, ch. 2001-170.