A legal battle over the future of Westminster Choir College shows no signs of subsiding, even after Rider University's announcement that a controversial $40 million deal to sell the school to a buyer from China has fallen through.

Rider's latest plan for Westminster Choir College, announced Monday, calls for its graduate and undergraduate music programs to relocate from their longtime location in Princeton to Rider's campus in Lawrenceville. Rider's announcement is vague about the future of Westminster's 23-acre campus in Princeton but suggests it will “explore the possibility of retaining a footprint” there.

“Throughout this process, we have continually sought to preserve and enhance Westminster's legacy as a world-class institution, and we made every effort to maintain the college in Princeton,” Rider president Gregory Dell'Omo said in a statement.

However, even partnering with a well-intentioned outside entity such as Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Co. Ltd, which had agreed to purchase and operate the college, was not feasible on a viable timeline, Dell'Omo said.

But a lawyer who represents plaintiffs in a suit against Rider says relocating Westminster away from its Princeton campus would violate conditions of a trust established by philanthropist Sophia Strong Taylor when she donated land for the Westminster campus in the 1930s. The plaintiffs, a group of graduates, faculty, students and parents, are seeking to enforce terms of a trust established by Taylor, who called for the land to revert to ownership of Princeton Theological Seminary if Westminster ceased to use it for a music school. The suit is pending in Mercer County Superior Court.

“By saying it wants to close the campus, Rider is effectively abandoning the responsibility it took over as charitable steward of the property,” says Bruce Afran, the Princeton solo practitioner who represents the alumni, faculty and students who are suing Rider.

In addition, the plaintiffs expect to amend their complaint against Rider in the near future to seek a severing of Westminster from Rider, Afran said. Such an action is  warranted because Rider has breached its duties as a charitable steward of Westminster. Enrollment at Westminster has dropped by more than half since Rider announced plans to sell it to a Chinese buyer two years ago, said Afran.

Westminster was founded in 1920, and it operated in various locations before moving to its present campus in 1934. It offers programs in music education, voice performance, piano performance, organ performance, pedagogy, music theory and composition, conducting, sacred music and arts management. It remained independent until 1991, when it affiliated with Rider.

Plans for two schools came full-circle this week, as the proposal to move Westminster's music programs to the Rider campus were first proposed in 2017. Rider then reached an agreement with Beijing Kaiwen, which agreed to operate Westminster at the Princeton location for at least 10 years.

But demands from the state Attorney General's Office for information about its operations, finances and staffing may have given Beijing Kaiwen cold feet about the deal, according to Afran, who said the would-be buyer is affliliated with the Chinese government.

A representative of the Attorney General's Office, which has been asked to issue an opinion on whether Rider's management of the Westminster property fulfills its obligations under the charitable trust, told Superior Court Judge Paul Innes on June 25 that it could not provide an opinion unless it receives information it sought from Beijing Kaiwen, says Afran.

Beijing Kaiwen's lawyer in the case, Kevin Hart of Stark & Stark in Lawrenceville, declined to comment on his client's reason for withdrawing from the Westminster Choir College deal.

A Rider University spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the latest developments concerning the Westminster issue.