An Oklahoma judge has rejected efforts by Oklahoma State University and its top booster, billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, to recoup millions of dollars the school spent on life-insurance policies for leading donors, the Associated Press reports.

Payne County Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler cited a March federal-court ruling against Mr. Pickens and Cowboys Athletics, the fundraising entity for Oklahoma State sports programs, in granting summary judgment to Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. and other defendants.

The suits arise from a fundraising plan that Mr. Pickens engineered whereby the university took out $10-million insurance policies on 27 boosters. The university, which has hoped to reap as much as $350-million when the donors died, abandoned the plan after three years and sued Lincoln National, claiming it was entitled to a refund on the $33-million it spent on premiums.

Attorneys for Pickens and Cowboys Athletics said they would appeal the state ruling, as they have the federal decision.