Lead Stories

In 1984, Irving Duke prepared a handwritten will in which he left everything to his wife except for the $1 bequest he used to cut his brother out of the estate. He also provided that if he and his wife died simultaneously, his estate would be divided between the City of Hope in the name of his sister, and the Jewish National Fund to plant trees in Israel. 

The Court of Appeals of Tennessee has approved the part of a cy pres order authorizing Fisk University to sell a one-half interest in the Steiglitz art collection to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR, for $30 million, but has reversed that part of the order that required Fisk to put $20 million into an endowment for maintenance of the collection.  The Court of Appeals said the trial court had no authority to impose the additional requirement. (In Re: Fisk University, No.

The former food services director of a nonprofit home for seniors has been permitted to proceed with a suit against her employer under the federal Stored Communications Act after her boss’s administrative assistant accessed her company computer during her absence and printed out more than 30 personal e-mail messages from her personal account.  An appellate court in Illinois has held that it was improper to dismiss the claim on a motion for summary judgment.  (

A magistrate judge in Missouri has ruled that the provider of a commercial liability policy to a nonprofit antique tractor club is not required to defend or indemnify the association and a group of individual members against the death claim of another member killed while helping move the club’s tractor pull sled. The magistrate said the case was controlled by the policy’s “employee” exclusion.  (Atlantic Casualty Insurance Company v. River Hills Antique Tractor Club, E.D. MO, No. 1:10CV 72, 1/9/12.)

An appellate court in California has affirmed dismissal of a defamation claim against a candidate for election to the board of a nonprofit radio station who had charged that termination of African-American employees was a form of “ethnic cleansing.”  The Court said that the speech was protected under the state’s anti-SLAPP law, limiting Strategic Litigation Against Public Policy. (Borgstrom v. Siegel, Ct. of App., CA, First Dist., Div. 1, No. A130331, 1/6/12.)

When the nonprofit Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans was brought to the brink of bankruptcy by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the board proposed to sell a portion of the property to a for-profit developer for use as a restaurant.  A member of the corporation who was also president of the Guild of Le Petit virulently opposed the deal and filed suit seeking an injunction to stop the sale.  He claimed that the proposed sale had never been approved by the membership as required by the state’s nonprofit corporation law.