Foundation must pay $1.7 million legal costs for trustees’ squabble

A scholarship foundation caught in the middle of a multi-year squabble between its trustees seeking to oust each other from their positions must pay nearly $1.7 million in legal fees and costs incurred by the trustees during their battle, a federal District Court in Maryland has ruled.  It has held that Maryland state law provides that legal costs are “a necessary part of the cost of administering a trust,” including a successful defense against an effort to remove a trustee from office.