Lead Stories

Donors who used a donor advised fund to make college loans to their son have been denied a charitable contribution deduction and ordered to pay capital gains taxes on stock sales within the fund plus an additional 20% penalty for underreporting of income tax due.  The Tax Court has affirmed the decision of the Internal Revenue Service.  (Gundanna v. Commissioner, 126 T.C. No. 8, 2/14/11.)

In 1998, the donors transferred nearly $264,000 to a “family public charity” at the xélan Foundation after the husband sold his interest in a medical practice at a substantial gain.

Despite a finding that a public charity failed in any way to satisfy a donor’s charitable goals with a donor advised fund and breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, the donor has no right to damages or rescission, the Supreme Court of Nevada has ruled.  (Styles v. Friends of Fiji, No. 51642, 2/8/11.)

The donor made a donor advised fund gift to Friends of Fiji, a Nevada nonprofit corporation that operated primarily out of California.  Under the provisions of a donor advised fund, a donor makes a gift to a public charity and is given the right to recommend how the funds will actually be used, usually through grants to another charities.

An administratively dissolved church corporation is not liable for a note and mortgage on its property executed by a member of the church who incorporated a new entity with the same name but was not authorized to make the transaction, according to the Court of Appeals of Georgia.  (Macedonia Baptist Church of Atlanta v. LIB Properties, No. A10A1736, 2/9/11.)

The Macedonia Baptist Church of Atlanta, Inc. was originally incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in 2001 and acquired title to its church property from the previously unincorporated church association.  In 2005, the corporation was administratively dissolved by the Secretary of State for failure to pay required fees.

The executive director of two agencies serving the elderly, who won a case brought by the State of West Virginia against him for excessive compensation and benefits, has been denied insurance coverage under the agency’s policy.  A federal District Court in West Virginia has held that the claim is barred by an exclusion of claims involving “wages, salaries and benefits.”  (Graham v. National Union Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, S.D. WV, No 1:10-00453, 2/17/11.)

When a participant in a cross-country bicycle tour was hit by a car and killed during the ride, his estate sued both the driver of the car and the nonprofit tour association that organized and sponsored the tour for negligence.  The association argued that the case should be dismissed against it because the plaintiff had not provided expert testimony that it had violated the professional standard of care for tour organizers.  A federal District Court in Washington has disagreed.

An attorney who represented an Oklahoma Girl Scout Council in employment matters has been ordered to transfer all of her client files to the surviving Council after the merger of her client and another Council.  The Supreme Court of Oklahoma has held that the files belong to the surviving entity by virtue of the merger agreement and state law. (Girl-Scouts—Western Oklahoma v. Barringer-Thompson, No. 108676, 3/29/11.)