The City of Rutland, VT, has lost its argument that a pair of parent-child centers offering a variety of state-funded programs for new and prospective parents and for families with small children should not be eligible for real estate tax exemption.  The City argued that they do not serve an “indefinite class” of beneficiaries and confer a benefit on the public as a whole.  The Supreme Court of Vermont has affirmed a trial court decision rejecting the claim and granting exemption for the parcels.

A trial court in North Carolina has refused to dismiss a corporate derivative suit brought by a private foundation director on behalf of the foundation and against the other four directors for breach of fiduciary duty and gross mismanagement.  The director is seeking damages for the foundation and removal of the other directors from the board.  The defendants had claimed that the director did not meet the requirements of state law to make demands on them before filing the action.

A employee claiming that she was fired in retaliation for taking family medical leave has to prove only that retaliation was a motivating factor in the decision, not that she would not have been terminated “but for” the retaliation, the second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.  It has reversed a trial court jury trial where the court instructed the jury that it could find for the employee only if it found that she would not have been fired but for the retaliation.

An employee of a nonprofit continuing care community has been allowed to proceed with claims for retaliation for seeking family medical leave and disability discrimination.  A federal District Court in Pennsylvania has denied the employer’s motion to dismiss.

The donors claimed $145,250 in charitable contribution deductions for gifts of clothing and household goods to Goodwill Industries in 2011.  They allegedly gave (among other things) 1040 items of boys’ clothing, 811 items of girls’ clothing, 658 items of men’s clothing, and 945 items of women’s clothing, plus 115 chairs, 36 lamps, 22 bookshelves, 20 desks, 20 chests of drawers, 16 bedframes, 14 filing cabinets, and 3153 books.