An employee allegedly told that she was passed over for a promotion because the selected candidate had “a management background” and “you were on maternity leave for a while” has sufficient evidence of sex discrimination to proceed to suit, a federal District Court in Maryland has held.
The Internal Revenue Service and a federal District Court are justified in saying that an non-existent entity is not entitled to federal income tax exemption as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has held. The conclusion was reached in an appeal by a convicted tax evader who was trying to avoid having to personally pay $3.79 million in income taxes owed on money received from his creation and sale of health supplements.
Charities and others are increasingly facing suits for alleged breach of fiduciary duty in failing to hold down the costs of various pension and benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”). (See Nonprofit Issues®, 6/16.) But a Department of Labor suit against a group of nonprofits in Maryland has raised two additional issues: that charity officials breached their fiduciary duty in one case because they solicited charitable contr
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed dismissal of a suit brought against individual directors of Catholic Health Ministries by a woman who claimed she was injured because the Catholic hospital to which she went for treatment of a miscarriage during her pregnancy followed the Catholic Health Directives approved by CHM. The Court, however, resolved the case without reaching a significant holding of the trial court that had acted previously. (Means v.
In a discrimination case where the plaintiff complained that she was subject to harassment after employees began asking whether her medical leave involved a sex change operation, the parties have been disputing the scope of discovery. The woman claimed that she was subject to harassment and ultimately terminated based on her medically diagnosed disability and her employer’s perception that she is not a stereotypical female.
An appellate court in Pennsylvania has affirmed a trial court decision refusing to invade the principal of a charitable trust to help a beneficiary avoid insolvency. It has said that the charity’s financial position is its own responsibility and distribution of principal would be contrary to the donor’s intent.
The Supreme Court of Oregon has overruled a Tax Court decision and held that a vacant lot acquired by an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity and being held for the construction of a house for a low-income family is exempt from real estate tax even before construction has been started. The Tax Court had held that the property was not “actually and exclusively occupied or used” by Habitat in its charitable purposes.
Is the Culinary Institute of America liable when one of its instructors injures a child in a traffic accident while driving home from work?
The executor of a decedent’s estate in New York has been surcharged $630,000, plus 6% interest, for selling the decedent’s residence for only about half of its fair market value, depriving four Lutheran charities and Adelphi University of the value in their remainder interest.
