A Roman Catholic parish office building has been granted only 50% real estate tax exemption in Pennsylvania.  The state’s Commonwealth Court has affirmed a trial court decision upholding the finding of the county Board of Assessment Appeals.

A federal District Court in Maryland has ruled that top executives of a group of charities providing jobs for people with disabilities are not “fiduciaries” with respect to the group’s Health and Welfare Plan and cannot be held personally liable for alleged breach of fiduciary duty or participation in prohibited transactions. 

A federal District Court in Virginia has refused to remove the bank trustee of a scholarship fund as sought by two individual trustees and has refused to remove the individual trustees as sought by the bank, saying that neither side had shown that the other breached their fiduciary duty or otherwise failed to function properly.  But it has sided with the bank on some substantive issues, including telling the trustees that they could not add conditions to the scholarship grants that are inconsistent with the provisions of the will establishing the fund.

The federal District Court in Wisconsin has granted a stay in its order to remove the individual trustees of a supporting organization to the Minneapolis Jewish Federation pending appeal of its ruling.  The Court had ordered removal of the trustees for breach of fiduciary duty and had ordered the addition of a new bank trustee.  (See Nonprofit Issues^®, Vol. XXVIII No. 5)

A federal District Court in California has allowed donors of $100 million to a donor advised fund at Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund to proceed with a suit for damages they claimed resulted when, contrary to its representations, Fidelity dumped the gift stock immediately upon receipt and depressed the value of the gift for charitable donation deduction purposes.  The Court has rejected a motion to dismiss the case, holding that the plaintiffs have standing to sue and have adequately alleged causes of action.