Lead Stories

The federal District Court in the District of Columbia has ruled that a group of “individuals sharing mutual concerns” about Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have no standing to sue the Treasury Department to force it to investigate about 200 501(c)(3) organizations and revoke their exemptions where appropriate.  The District Court followed a long line of cases denying standing where the activity complained of has only a tenuous relationship to the injury complained about and where the remedy requested would not redress the injury.

A church in San Francisco has lost a court battle to reclaim control over two housing subsidiaries, one of which is more than a half century old, that it thought it controlled but didn’t.  An appellate court in California has affirmed a trial court decision holding that the church’s claim is barred by the statute of limitations but even if it weren’t, the governing documents of the “subsidiaries” don’t give the church any role in governance.

A court appointed receiver for a nonprofit community action program may claim breach of duty by two former officers and demand that the organization’s D & O insurance carrier make payment.  A federal District Court in Rhode Island, reviewing conflicting cases in other jurisdictions, has held that the claim is not excluded by the “insured-versus-insured” exception contained in the policy.

Two children of the founders of a family private foundation don’t seem to see eye-to-eye on the operation of the foundation they now lead following the death of their parents.  The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has recently affirmed a District Court decision denying relief to the son who sought to overturn actions taken by his sister.  (See Nonprofit Issues, 1/16.) 

A federal District Court in Missouri, agreeing with several District Courts in other states, but acting without any Court of Appeals authority, had held that the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act do not apply to a Catholic hospital, but that the hospital can be sued for retaliation under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

A divided Supreme Court in Maine has denied standing to an owner of real estate burdened by a conservation easement seeking to enforce the terms of the easement against an adjacent landowner to whom the owner sold the property burdened by the same easement.  In a 5-2 decision, the Court has affirmed a trial court decision denying standing on the ground that it is not authorized under the state’s law modeled on the Uniform Conservation Easement Act.