Lead Stories

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.  (

It has been a long trail of litigation since Alfred L. DuPont, a resident of Florida, left a testamentary trust, that he required to be administered under Florida law, to establish The Nemours Foundation to provide care for “crippled children” who are residents of Delaware.

Although a nonprofit corporation ceased to operate a continuing care retirement community and was no longer legally required to elect at least one resident of its continuing care retirement community to its board of directors, a resident elected director is still properly seated when elected pursuant to the corporation’s articles and bylaws, the Supreme Court of Nebraska has ruled.  (Skyline Manor, Inc. v. Rynard, Supreme Ct., NE, No.

A federal District Court in Nebraska has issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a local ordinance in the City of Lincoln that would prohibit for-profit companies from placing clothing collection boxes on private real estate and would require at least 80 percent of the proceeds to be used for charitable purposes.  The Court said the for-profit plaintiff showed a likelihood of success in bringing the case.  (Linc-Drop, Inc. v. City of Lincoln, D. NE, No.

A community foundation and its board president have been dismissed from a suit by a former executive of a grantee who claimed that their defamation caused him to lose a job in the office of the Mayor of Indianapolis.  An appellate court in Indiana has affirmed a trial court finding that the president’s factual comments were true and could not be the basis for defamation or other claims.  (Miller v. Central Indiana Community Foundation, Ct. of App., IN, No. 49A04-1309-PL-451, 6/11/14.)

Nearly ten years after an unincorporated association sued another unincorporated association, the Supreme Court of Kentucky has thrown out the case, stating that as a matter of general state law an unincorporated association can neither sue nor be sued in the association’s name.  (United Brotherhood of Carpenters v. Birchwood Conservancy, KY, No. 2011-SC-000659, 6/19/14.)