Lead Stories

A man who lived in subsidized senior housing and failed to tell his lawyer the extent of his estate told his lawyer only that he wanted to keep his legal fees as low as possible. Following instructions, the lawyer produced a simple 2-page will, leaving the income from his securities and bank accounts to two friends, with the residue thereafter to the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association.

A nonprofit corporation approved at a meeting of an unincorporated association does not succeed to the interests of the association when the members have not received adequate notice of the proposal and have not approved it unanimously, a federal District Court in Virginia has held.  (Bedford Genealogical Society, Inc. v. Bedford Museum and Genealogical Library, W.D. VA, No. 6-09-cv-00060, 5/21/10.)

A receiver appointed to collect assets dissipated by the perpetrator of a Ponzi scheme has been permitted to pursue a recovery action against a nonprofit private school that received “purported charitable donations” of more than $900,000 directly from the fraudulent partnership and another $200,000 from a foundation that received it from the partnership.  A federal District Court in Philadelphia has denied the school’s motion to dismiss the case.  (Hecht v

When a bicyclist riding in Central Park in New York City was injured in an accident with a cyclist riding in a race organized by the New York Triathlon Club, he sued the City for damages.  He claimed that the City failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent foreseeable dangers that arose from allowing the race to proceed on park roads while the roads were being used simultaneously by the general public.

A nonprofit mental health agency’s insurance does not cover a claim for medical malpractice against an agency physician who prescribed drugs for a former private care patient who was not a client of the agency.  The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a District Court decision that the physician was not acting within the scope of his employment.

An appellate court in Texas has ruled that notice of a meeting of a nonprofit’s nominating committee was ineffective when sent to committee members only by electronic mail and not by one of the methods for providing notice set forth in the bylaws of the corporation.  The ruling came in a lengthy opinion denying summary judgment to both sides in a dispute over elections in a homeowners’ association.  (Swonke v.