Lead Stories

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed two District Court decisions enjoining the state of California from requiring submission of the Form 990 Schedule B list of major donors in order to solicit charitable contributions within the state.  It has joined the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that recently held that a similar requirement in New York is constitutional and enforceable.  (See Nonprofit Issues^®, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1)

When Kathryn Seymour executed her Amended Trust Agreement, she provided that upon her death the residue of her estate would go 50% to St. John’s United Church of Christ in Massillon, OH, 40% to the Massillon community hospital, and 10% to the local branch of the Salvation Army.  Before her death, however, the hospital was sold to a for-profit and became known as the Affinity Medical Center.  The bank trustee asked the trial court for a declaratory judgment on the question of the rightful recipient of the 40% interest.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a three-year prison sentence for a data-records supervisor at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, who pled guilty to stealing $33,000 as part of what the Museum claimed was a $900,000 binge over six years.  The Court affirmed the sentence based on guidelines for theft between $550,000 and $1.5 million.

The bylaws of the Refuge Temple Church of God in Christ, a South Carolina nonprofit corporation founded by Pastor Elder Edward Jenkins in 1997, provide that the pastor can fill vacancies on the board with the advice and consent of the other directors. 

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has affirmed a trial court decision upholding the termination of a golf club membership at a special meeting of the board on the basis of the member’s dispute with a golf shop employee and his “cumulative disciplinary history” of two other sanctions while a member of the Club.  The Court rejected the member’s argument that a hearing and an opportunity to be heard were required as a matter of law.

The New York Attorney General’s office has filed a complaint against an accounting firm and its founder for fraudulently providing unqualified financial statements for a charity closed down by the state.  The complaint says that McEnerney, Brady & Co. and its founder Edmond Brady “facilitated a multi-year scheme of fraudulent not-for-profit conduct by falsifying [the charity’s] financial statements.”