Lead Stories

A U.S. private foundation that loaned a physician on its staff to an international agency that conducted nonconsensual human medical experiments cannot be held liable for the actions of the loaned executive when it did not have control over his activities, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed.  The Court has upheld the earlier decision of a federal District Court in Maryland holding that the foundation could not be liable because the physician was not acting as its agent in conducting the experiments.

The state of Utah has recently, and without fanfare, passed a statute (H.B.43) that repeals the requirement for most charities to file charitable solicitation registration forms with the state, commencing with the effective date of the statute on May 1, 2024. 

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.