New bylaw provisions restricting Penn State University Trustees’ right to speak freely about issues facing the Board of the University have been challenged from a new perspective.
Herman Stille’s will provided that the remainder of his estate should go “to the Floyd County Memorial Hospital. Charles City, Iowa, for the purpose of establishing a cancer center to serve local area residents if the funds available make such establishment possible.” He spelled out some of the facilities that would be required in the cancer center.
A divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court has held that a Stormwater Runoff Charge imposed by the Borough of West Chester against West Chester University is a local governmental tax from which the University is exempt and not a service fee applicable specifically to users of the service.
A federal District Court has dismissed most counts of a suit brought by ousted Penn State University Trustee Barry J. Fenchak against the University in their long-running dispute over Fenchak’s rights and duties as a member of the Board of Trustees. The Court has dismissed claims of defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution. It has refused to dismiss at this point, however, a claim for violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The case filed by the National Religious Broadcasters and two churches to invalidate the prohibition against charities’ participation in elections has been dismissed by a Federal District Court in Texas. The case has been dismissed even though the plaintiffs and the Internal Revenue Service had agreed to a consent decree under which the IRS would not enforce the statute against the two churches.
The Court said it had no jurisdiction to decide the case under the Tax Anti-Injunction Act and the Declaratory Judgment Act.
A trial court has authority to name a specific hospital as the beneficiary of charitable funds even though the trustee holding such funds recommends a hospital foundation and a community organization to benefit when the originally designated hospital went out of existence.
