Lead Stories

The Supreme Court of Washington has dismissed a group of claims brought by the state for violation of state consumer protection law by a for-profit thrift store operator that advertised its payments to “charity partners” for contributions to the thrift store operation.  The Court has refused to apply the standard for liability usually applicable to “commercial” speech to determine whether a fraud had occurred and found that the claims do not survive the “strict scrutiny” applied to charitable solicitation.

A Pennsylvania appellate court has denied charitable real estate tax exemption for four hospitals in a reginal nonprofit hospital system on the ground that they did not qualify under the state’s definition of “charitable.”  It affirmed three decisions from one county and reversed a decision from another.

The state Commonwealth Court has found that four hospitals in the Tower Health system in suburban Philadelphia did not operate free from private profit motive and did not provide a sufficient amount of below cost care to its patients.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibiting workplace discrimination specifically exempts a “bona fide membership club” that is federally tax-exempt under section 501(c). 

A federal District Court in Pennsylvania has recently decided that the Centre Hills Country Club in State College PA meets the definition and is exempt from the rules.  It has dismissed on summary judgment a claim brought by a female former employee.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 passed at the end of the last session of Congress includes three provisions that are of specific importance to charities and other nonprofits. 

A charitable estate planning firm did not breach a fiduciary duty to a married couple by failing to disclose the full basis of their fee arrangement with charitable beneficiaries of the plan, a California Court of Appeal has affirmed.  Two daughters who sought to overturn the estate plan that reduced bequests to them have been rebuffed in a family fight over the estate.

The Attorney General of New York has permanently barred the former CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies in the Buffalo area from serving in a fiduciary capacity for any charity active in New York state after finding that the CEO misused approximately $3.1 million in donor advised and other funds held by the organization.