Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibiting workplace discrimination specifically exempts a “bona fide membership club” that is federally tax-exempt under section 501(c). A federal District Court in Pennsylvania has recently decided that the Centre Hills Country Club in State College PA meets the definition and is exempt from the rules. It has dismissed on summary judgment a claim brought by a female former employee. The criteria for the classification are set out in the Compliance Manual of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Court says there appears to be only one appellate case in the nation reviewing the EEOC position, a 1996 Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals case dealing...

A charitable estate planning firm did not breach a fiduciary duty to a married couple by failing to disclose the full basis of their fee arrangement with charitable beneficiaries of the plan, a California Court of Appeal has affirmed. Two daughters who sought to overturn the estate plan that reduced bequests to them have been rebuffed in a family fight over the estate. Lowell and Mary Lou Patton had been married for more than 40 years when Mary Lou became seriously ill with leukemia in early 2002. Since they had no estate plan, their long-time accountant recommended they see a lawyer. Mary Lou told the lawyer that she wanted to assure that her husband would treat their daughters fairly, but...