In the latest battle in the continuing fight to obtain legal rights for sentient animals, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that a nonprofit organization seeking to protect the rights of elephants has no standing to sue because the elephants are not “persons” entitled to the habeas corpus protection sought on their behalf.  The Court has unanimously ruled that the state habeas corpus law applies only to human beings.

An African American man “with dark skin” has been permitted to continue a suit against his employer for discrimination on the basis of color, but not on the basis of race or sex.  A federal District Court in Virginia has granted the employer’s motion to dismiss the claim to the extent it was based on race or sex.

A nonprofit organization awarded attorneys’ fees in a state court case seeking public records is entitled to recover for fees allocated to the work of in-house counsel, an appellate court in Wisconsin has ruled.  The state Court of Appeals has joined the “vast majority of federal authority under federal fee shifting statutes and the Freedom of Information Act that have allowed a for-profit corporation to recover attorney’s fees for in-house counsel.”

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has held that subchapter V of the Bankruptcy Code, as adopted by the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, may be utilized by a nonprofit homeowners’ association to provide a reorganization plan even though the debtor is not organized or operated for profit.

An appellate court in Maryland has affirmed a jury’s decision that a will executed by a founder of a private operating foundation in 2010, which left approximately $12.5 million of the residuary of her estate in trust for her daughter and the daughter’s children, was valid and could not be overturned for lack of testamentary capacity.  The founder’s prior will existing at the time of the new will had left the residue of her estate to the Foundation.

In 1944, George G. Averill conveyed 330 acres of land in Kennebec County, ME, now known as Camp Bomazeen, to himself and others as trustees to be used as a camp for the Boy Scouts of America.  The deed allowed the trustees to sell any or all of the property with written consent of the local council of Boy Scouts and provided that the proceeds of the transaction “shall be used for the purposes and under the conditions” of the trust deed.