A bank trustee that took a little more than two months to distribute trust funds to charities during the precipitous drop in stock prices in late 2008 is not liable for a breach of fiduciary duty under the circumstances of the case, an appellate court in California has affirmed.  (Estate of Gilliland, Hi-Desert Memorial Hospital v. Union Bank of California, Ct. of App. CA, Second Dist., Div.

A federal District Court in Ohio has permitted a group of Tea Party and other conservative organizations to pursue a class action against the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly illegal scrutiny of their applications for tax exempt status. 

Trustees of Girard College, a free elementary and secondary school for disadvantaged youth in Philadelphia, have been denied a request to eliminate their residential and high school programs temporarily in order to rebuild their reserves to assure the long-term viability of their programs.  The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has affirmed an Orphans’ Court decision denying the request.  (Estate of Stephen Girard, No. 2254 C.D. 2014, 1/21/16.) 

An appellate court in New York has permitted three churches to remove restrictions on permissible investments imposed by the same donor in his will.  The donor had said that the churches could invest the bequests only in insured bank accounts and government securities.  (In Re: Estate of Chamberlin, Sup. Ct., App. Div., Third Dept., NY, 1/7/16.)

An appellate court in Illinois has held that the state legislature cannot expand the basis for hospital real estate tax exemption beyond the provisions of the state Constitution.  It has remanded a claim for exemption by The Carle Foundation for four properties in Urbana, telling the trial court to determine whether they are being used for “charitable” purposes without regard for a new state law intended to set new standards for nonprofit hospital exemption in the state.