Courts are generally reluctant to get involved in church controversies for fear of becoming impermissibly entangled in ecclesiastical matters in violation of the First Amendment protection of religion.  But they do get involved where they can decide church disputes under “neutral principles of law” without having to decide issues of religious doctrine.

Overturning a 1965 decision holding that extrinsic evidence was inadmissible to reform a will that is unambiguous on its face, a unanimous Supreme Court of California has held that an unambiguous will may be reformed to conform to the testator’s intent if the claimants establish by clear and convincing evidence that the will contains a mistake of intent and also establish the testator’s actual specific intent at the time the will was drafted.  The Court says it is joining a small but growing number of states that are modernizing their rules to more accurately fulfill the testator’s int

The statement that “religious guys basically stand a lot when they pray and when they talk and give lectures” was not persuasive to the New Jersey Tax Court as it considered an appeal from the denial of real estate tax exemption for a former bank owned by a private school.

The federal District Court in the District of Columbia has affirmed the retroactive revocation of charitable exemption of a scholarship foundation that operated for the private benefit of a single family.

A federal District Court in Philadelphia has rejected a motion to dismiss claims for punitive damages against a healthcare system, a hospital within the system, the director of the hospital’s emergency department and an emergency room nurse who allegedly disclosed protected health information about a police officer injured in an automobile accident.  The officer and his wife claimed damages from disclosure to superiors in his department.

A bank trustee has been found not liable for breach of fiduciary duty or breach of contract when a $1.9 million charitable remainder annuity trust (a “CRAT”) designed to provide a 7.5% annual payout to the annuitants for life was totally exhausted in 11 years.  An appellate court in Georgia has ruled that the bank neither violated its fiduciary duty within the applicable statute of limitations period nor breached its contract with the beneficiaries.  (Wells Fargo Bank v. Cook, Ct.