Lead Stories

Here we feature questions from our recent webinar on charitable solicitation registration.  You can hear the entire program by purchasing access in our Bookstore.  These responses are based on the assumption that the organization involved is not excluded or exempted from the registration requirement.  Any organization soliciting charitable contributions should check the state law of any state in which it is soliciting charitable contributions to see if it is required to comply with registration requirements.  Such laws

A form release included on a one-page “Visit Pass” signed by all guests at a nonprofit church retreat and conference center is sufficient to preclude a guest from suing the center and one of its concessionaires for injuries sustained on the premises, an appellate court in California has held.  (Rothman v. Heart Consciousness Church, Ct. of App., First Dist., Div. One, No. A128138, 3/16/11.)

An Islamic charter school is required to indemnify and hold its nonprofit sponsor and the state Commissioner of Education harmless from costs and expenses in defending a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota charging that the school promotes Islam in violation of the First Amendment and the state constitution, a federal District Court has held. The provision in the Charter School Contract requiring such indemnification is valid and enforceable, the Court has said. (ACLU of Minnesota v. Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy, D. MN, No. 09-138, 4/20/11.)

A bankruptcy court in Ohio has allowed two hospital foundations to withdraw from the bankruptcy proceedings involving 18 separate entities within the Forum Health system, despite creditors’ claims that the foundations’ unrestricted assets should be made available to pay the claims of creditors of the other entities.  The Court has held that even though the foundations have the right to give to the other entities, the other entities have no right to take from the foundations.  (In Re Forum Health, Bkrptcy Ct., N.D. OH, No. 09-40795, 3/17/11.)

What should counsel do when board chair “goes rogue”?

An attorney hired by a dissident director of a nonprofit corporation in an attempt to regain control of the organization may not be sued by the nonprofit for malpractice, the Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled. The director did not have authority to hire on behalf of the organization and there was therefore no attorney-client relationship.  (New Destiny Treatment Center v. Wheeler, No 2010-298, 5/18/11.)