Lead Stories

The donor of a charitable contribution has no standing to enforce conditions imposed on the gift when enforcement would require the recipient’s board of directors to declare a default on a loan made with the donated money, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has ruled.  (In re: Foundation for Anglican Christian Tradition, Commonwealth Ct., PA, 11/5/14.)

A suit by a community association and two taxpayers against two donors and the Foundation of the University of California at Los Angeles seeking to stop a commercial development project by the university has been found to violate the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Policy (SLAPP) law in California, in part because there was no showing that the plaintiffs had a chance of winning on the merits.  (Save Westwood Village v.

A member of a nonprofit condominium association has a right to inspect the books and records of the association but not the right to have the association deliver copies of the records to the member’s office, an appellate court in Illinois has ruled.  It has reversed a trial court decision granting the member’s demands.  (Oviedo v. 1270 S. Blue Island Condominium, App. Ct., IL, First Dist., Third Div., No. 1-13-3460, 8/27/14.)

What are the potential damages to two Howard University students denied admission to the famed Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority chapter on campus, and their mothers who are graduate members of AKA who have dreamed for years of seeing their daughters join the Sorority? 

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has held that a trustee holding a fund to provide long-term income to a charity must invest with an eye toward growth of the fund so that the value of the income is not eroded by inflation over time.  It has ruled that a trustee that invested funds almost entirely in fixed income assets for more than 50 years and failed to grow the value of the fund has breached its fiduciary duty because the value of the income has not kept pace with inflation.  (