SMU settled their five-year battle with condo owner Gary Vodicka on Jan. 7, making SMU the owner of the land planned for the future landscaped grounds of the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

SMU paid Vodicka an undisclosed sum so that the library designers could have a larger area for planning. Vodicka told the Dallas Morning News that the payment was appropriate.

“It was a fair settlement, and I can retire if I want to,” he said. “I could live off the interest for the rest of my life.”

Leon Bennett, SMU’s in-house lawyer, told DMN that while a lengthier process would have probably proven SMU to be the rightful owner of the land, it was better to avoid further legal costs.

SMU went through a nonprofit corporation to buy the condo units. The condo board had eventually claimed the units as severely deteriorated before selling to SMU.

Despite the fact that the majority of condo owners immediately sold to SMU, Vodicka and another condo owner, Robert Tafel, refused to. The two fought SMU together, until Tafel settled last year.

SMU has not disclosed how much the fight cost them. Vodicka told DMN  SMU spent at least $10 million on legal fees over the past four years.

The deal made between SMU and Vodicka stipulated that Vodicka was to return all the confidential material he had obtained from the school. University personnel retrieved 71 boxes of documents from his house, he said.

A retired judge at the Collin County courthouse in McKinney signed the final papers on Jan. 7.

-Taylor Adams, News Editor