Lead Stories

A bank holding a judgment against the income beneficiary of a charitable remainder unitrust may attach and collect the income from the beneficiary despite a “spendthrift” provision in the trust preventing a creditor from attaching the income, an appellate court in Arizona has held.  Interpreting the Washington state law that all parties agreed was applicable to the trust, it has held that state law specifically provides that a spendthrift provision does not apply to a trust created by the beneficiary.

How extensive is the authority of the board of directors of a nonprofit corporation to act? 

The director of a nonprofit corporation seeking a judicial dissolution of the corporation has standing to continue the case even after being removed from the board after filing the complaint, according to the Court of Appeals of Arizona.  It has reversed a trial court decision dismissing the case on summary judgment and ordering the plaintiff to pay attorneys fees to the organization.  (Workman v. Verde Wellness Center, Ct. of App., AZ, No.

The board of directors of a nonprofit homeowners’ association may not bar a fellow director from attending executive sessions of the board because she violated confidentiality requests.  An appellate court in Arizona has reversed a trial court decision denying the excluded director’s application for a preliminary injunction to overturn the ban.  (McNally v. Sun Lakes Homeowners Association, Ct. of App., AZ, No. 1 CA-CV-15-0744, 10/13/16.)

“The question of who can speak for the animals has long vexed federal judges in animal-welfare cases,” a judge in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia has written recently.  “As a general matter, courts have concluded that well-established principles of Article III standing permit human beings to invoke their own injuries in fact to challenge harms done to animals, but it can be exceptionally confusing to apply settled standing doctrine to determine when and under what circumstances an act that is allegedly harmful to animals works a cognizable injury in fact to huma

Charities and others are increasingly facing suits for alleged breach of fiduciary duty in failing to hold down the costs of various pension and benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”).  (See Nonprofit Issues^®, 6/16.)  But a Department of Labor suit against a group of nonprofits in Maryland has raised two additional issues:  that charity officials breached their fiduciary duty in one case because they solicited charitable contr