Lead Stories

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. 

A nonprofit’s whistleblower policy first enacted after an at-will employee had begun his employment does not create a barrier to his termination, an appellate court in New York has held.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court and ruled that an ordinance that barred door-to-door solicitation after 6 p.m. is unconstitutional.  After considering every justification advanced by the City of Englewood (OH), the Court said the law was not “narrowly tailored” to serve significant governmental interests.  (Ohio Citizen Action v. City of Englewood, 6th Cir., No. 10-3265, 2/2/12.)

A member of a Pennsylvania homeowners’ association who engaged in a proxy fight for control of the association’s board when proxy votes were not permitted under state law has lost his fight for control, even though the vote of the members present at a special meeting, when tallied without counting the proxy votes, would have been sufficient to remove the board.  An appellate court in Pennsylvania has affirmed a trial court decision that the election was a nullity. (Barcia v. Fenlon, PA Commonwealth Ct., No. 2352 C.D. 2010, 2/2/12.)