A memorial service will be held this month for Judge David Lee, who presided for several years over a far-reaching North Carolina school funding case and ordered last year that taxpayer money be spent on student inequities.
Lee died Oct. 4 at his Monroe home of complications from cancer, The funeral home confirmed his death Monday.
Lee, a Superior Court judge, oversaw litigation called 鈥淟eandro鈥� since late 2016. In March, to hear the next portion of the case. Lee had reached the mandatory retirement age for judges in January.
In November, from state coffers to government agencies to fund a remedial spending plan to help provide a constitutionally mandated 鈥渙pportunity for a sound basic education鈥� for at-risk children and those in poor regions.
The judge found that he had the authority to transfer taxpayer funds in part because the state 鈥� in particular the legislature 鈥� had failed repeatedly to comply with major court rulings stemming from the 1994 lawsuit.
A state Court of Appeals panel , and Lee's successor in the case . The state Supreme Court over whether the judiciary had the power to make such a unilateral spending decision. The justices have yet to rule.
Lee, a South Carolina native who grew up in Unionville, attended Western Carolina University and Wake Forest law school. He had been a longtime civil litigation attorney before first being appointed to the bench in 2003. He served as president of local Jaycees and Rotary Club groups.
that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer 鈥� a tumor had been found in his liver in 2019.
The memorial service is scheduled for Oct. 22 at First Baptist Church in Monroe, where he was a longtime member. Survivors include his wife, three children, and three grandchildren.
