Lead Stories

Can you follow the bouncing ball?  After more than seven years of litigation, an appellate court in Pennsylvania has decided who should receive the benefit of a trust left for a Philadelphia hospital that has gone through several reorganizations, bankruptcy, sale to a for-profit company, and dissolution since the donor’s death in 1919.  The Court has affirmed award of the income to one of the successor organizations created out of the bankruptcy of the Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation (“AHERF”) in 1998.  (Estate of Elkins, Pa. Superior Ct., No. 2147 EDA 2009, 9/1/11.)

A federal District Court in Ohio has dismissed a suit by the Mayor and City of Cleveland seeking to force the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to maintain its service and Level II trauma center at Huron Hospital in East Cleveland.  The Court has held that the City did not state a claim under Title VI of the federal Civil Right Act, did not have standing to claim a breach of charitable trust, and was not a party to tax-exempt bond financing documents that could claim a breach of contract.  (

We regularly feature answers to questions from readers in our “Your Legal Questions Answered” column. The full list can be viewed on the site. 

Must board report embezzlement?

A mortgage broker who helped a church procure three mortgage loans that were signed by a co-pastor but never authorized by the pastor or the board has been found not liable to the church for funds apparently diverted by the co-pastor for other uses. A bankruptcy court in California has held that even though the broker breached a duty to the church, its conduct was not a “substantial factor” in the harm. (In re: Church of God in Christ #2 v. BDM Mortgage Services, Bankruptcy Ct., N.D. CA, Bankruptcy No. 08-30750, 10/20/11.)

The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania has been permitted to sue Fifth Third Bank in Ohio for failing to have a customer complete a change of designation form on his “payable on death” accounts even where the Society’s lawyer had filed an entry of appearance in a probate court case determining the rightful owner of the funds. The Court of Appeals of Ohio has said the Society was not precluded from litigating the issue because it was not decided in the earlier case.  (Fifth Third Bank v. Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Ct. of App., OH, No. 96403, 10/6/11.)

A family foundation has standing to sue a bank for breach of its custodianship agreement between the bank and a foundation donor when the bank’s delay in transferring stock may have cost the foundation about $1.6 million in lost value. The bank had argued that the foundation had no standing to sue because it was not a party to the custodianship agreement.  An appellate court in Massachusetts has ruled that the foundation was an intended beneficiary of the agreement and could pursue the case for its damages.  (The James Family Charitable Foundation v.