Lead Stories

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed a decision by a state trial court holding that a charitable trust providing support of Virginia Military Institute should not be terminated because the additional burdens of operating as a separate private foundation were not “unreasonably out of proportion to the charitable benefits” of the trust.

When the executive director of the Bronx Conservatory of Music failed to reach agreement with the school on an extension of his employment contract in 2020, he shortly thereafter founded the Bronx School of Music and sent emails to his personal contacts, former students, community friends, and donors, seeking to recruit them to his new endeavor. 

The Supreme Court of Minnesota has affirmed two lower court decisions holding that a series of incidents involving a breach of trust can cumulatively justify removal of the trustee for “significant” breach of trust, even though some of the breaches alone might not justify removal.  It has affirmed the removal of one of the trustees of the Otto Bremer Trust, a $2 billion private foundation located in St. Paul, under the state’s version of the Uniform Trust Code.

An appellate court in Louisiana has held that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has appropriately followed its own internal rules in suspending a “lifetime” member for five years for conduct “inimical to the best interests” of the Association. The Court upheld the action to suspend the rights of Ernest L. Johnson, a former member of the national board of directors.

An appellate court in New York has affirmed the dismissal of counterclaims by the National Rifle Association seeking to throw out a suit by the state Attorney General for widespread and longstanding executive malfeasance.  It has affirmed the traditional standard of needing only to show “probable cause” to overcome a defendant’s claim of retaliatory litigation.

A nonprofit corporation that manages historical property for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States cannot force the National Trust to increase the distribution from its endowment to cover costs of the work, a federal District Court in Virginia has held.  The Court has said that the relationship is governed by the management contract and is not covered by the state’s Uniform Trust Code.