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D.C. Attorney General May Sue To Dissolve Nonprofit Fiscal Sponsor

Amendment to City’s Anti-SLAPP law prevents defendants from using law for motion to dismiss
The Attorney General for the District of Columbia may proceed with a suit to dissolve a nonprofit fiscal sponsor that it claims provided more than $4 million in grants, constituting more than 99% of its total grantmaking, to a related for-profit corporation, the District’s Court of Appeals has ruled. The sponsor and the for-profit, who had partnered together to produce documentary films about various historical and political figures, had moved to dismiss the case on the basis of the Anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (“anti-SLAPP”) Act. A trial court had dismissed the motion but while the case was pending on appeal, the Council for the District passed “emergency”...

Court Says Racial Slurs Against Black Health Aide Did Not Create Hostile Work Environment

“An objectively reasonable caretaker would not have been detrimentally affected” by patient’s use of N-word “all the time”
A federal District Court in Pennsylvania has dismissed a hostile work environment claim brought against a behavioral health facility by a black woman aide because “an objectively reasonable caretaker would not have been detrimentally affected” by her patient’s regular race-based harassment. Tondalaya Davis took a job at Elwyn Institute in 2018 to help patients in its New Beginnings Program. The Institute provides long-term residential care for severely impaired patients in a “step-down” program transitioning patients from a state mental hospital to a return to the community. She took the job from a similar position at another organization. She was assigned to work the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m...

NY AG May Not Sue to Dissolve National Rifle Association

Trial court allows claims to proceed against individual defendants for breach of fiduciary duty
A trial court in New York has dismissed a complaint brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association for its failure to oversee top executives and prevent the loss of millions of dollars improperly spent by its leaders. But the Court has allowed the AG to continue to prosecute various claims against the individual defendants for breach of fiduciary duty and other offenses. “The Attorney General’s allegations in this case, if proven,” the Court said at the beginning of its opinion, “tell a grim story of greed, self-dealing, and lax financial oversight at the highest levels of the National Rifle Association. They describe in detail a...

Director May Sue Officer of Dissolved Corporation For Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Court reverses summary judgment granted by trial court because plaintiff was denied ability to discover evidence
An appellate court in Michigan has reversed a trial court decision granting summary judgment to the former president of a family foundation who was being sued by his brother, a former director of the foundation, for breach of fiduciary duty. The trial court had said that the plaintiff brother had failed to show evidence of a breach of duty. The Court of Appeals said he hadn’t been able to show evidence because the trial court had granted a protective order against discovery of the evidence he needed to show. The substantive issues came up in a complicated procedural case involving Timothy Lennon’s suit against his brother Edward Lennon, the former president of the David A. Lennon Foundation...

Fiscal Sponsor Has No Fiduciary Duty To Sponsored Organization

Court says relationship is limited to terms of agreement, denies claim for breach of contract or fiduciary duty
A fiscal sponsor is not liable for breach of contract with its sponsored organization and has no fiduciary duty to the organization when the sponsored program goes bad, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals has affirmed. It has denied claims of the sponsored organization and granted summary judgment to the community foundation that had reluctantly agreed to take on the project. MobilizeGreen was “an upstart charitable organization” when it asked the Community Foundation for the Capital Region to serve as its fiscal sponsor in 2011. It had sought to create a national diversity internship program using funds from the U.S. Forest Service although it had not been recognized as a 501(c)(3)...

Harvard Prof Denied Advance Legal Fees Under University Indemnification Policy

World-renowned chemist accused of falsifying statements about research projects in China was deemed unlikely to be entitled
A world-renowned Harvard chemist has been denied advanced payment of legal fees to defend against charges of making false statements to a governmental agency and failing to report all of his income for tax purposes under the indemnification policy of Harvard University. The advance was originally denied to Charles M. Lieber, former head of the Harvard Chemistry department, by the executive vice president of the University after Lieber had been indicted in 2020 for making false statements to the Department of Defense during an investigation of possible Chinese scientific espionage. He was subsequently indicted for additional tax offenses. The denial was affirmed by a trial court in Boston...

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