Lead Stories

A federal District Court in Tennessee has disqualified the former general counsel of a nonprofit professional organization from representing a former employee suing the organization for wrongful termination.  It said the attorney’s service as general counsel for more than a decade creates “a substantial risk that confidential factual information that would normally have been obtained in the prior representation would materially advance the client’s position in the subsequent matter.”

In the “latest installment of long-running serial litigation” involving control over an Oregon homeowners’ association, the Oregon Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court and held that a court has jurisdiction to consider judicial removal of members of the board of directors, even where the association’s bylaws provide a means of removal by the members.  The Court has reversed a trial court decision dismissing an action seeking judicial removal of the board.

A decedent’s estate properly paid a $246,000 claim to a Jewish synagogue when the Temple relied on the unsigned pledge to encourage others to participate in its campaign for a new building and endowment, the Supreme Court of Alabama has ruled.  The fact that one of the co-executors was a member of the Temple and on one of its committees did not invalidate the payment.  (Ruttenberg v. Friedman, No. 1090600, 5/11/12.)

The Boy Scouts of America has recently lost two efforts to keep confidential its internal records of volunteers accused of sexual abuse. Several decades of records were, or could be, used to support damage claims by men seeking to impose liability on the Scouts for abuse.

The Oregon Supreme Court has affirmed a trial court decision to open redacted files to the media upon the conclusion of a case in which a jury returned a verdict against the Scouts for $1.4 million in compensatory damages and $18 million in punitives.

A bankruptcy court in western Pennsylvania has dismissed a bankruptcy proceeding it found was not filed in good faith by directors of a nonprofit corporation when the corporation was not insolvent and the board was fighting for control of the organization in a pending state court proceeding.  (In Re: Laurel Highlands Foundation, Inc., Debtor, Bkrptcy Ct. W.D. PA, No. 12-22558, 6/12/12.)

The federal District Court of New Jersey has allowed a former employee to sue her nonprofit employer for invasion of privacy for allegedly coercing another employee, who was her “friend” on Facebook, to reveal a Facebook posting to the employer who was not a friend and had no access to the posting.  (Ehling v. Monmouth-Ocean County Hospital Service Corp., No. 2:11-cv-03305, 5/30/12.)