When competing factions for control of the Xi’an Jiaotong University Alumni Association of Northern California could not resolve their differences, they filed claims and counter claims in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County. 

The Nebraska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is not the “charitable successor or assign” of the Pella Lutheran Church of Omaha, the Supreme Court of Nebraska has affirmed.  It is not entitled to receive Pella’s share of an estate left to Pella and its charitable successors and assigns.

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania, an intermediate appellate court, has affirmed a trial court decision and denied a request of the Virginia Military Institute to terminate a $2 million trust for its benefit and transfer the assets to its affiliated foundation outright.  In what it called a case of first impression, the Court upheld the position of the trustee bank and the state attorney general that the donor had intended to keep the assets separate from the institution and a difference in cost was not sufficient to deviate from that intent.

What happens when members of a condo association fail to follow their governing documents in changing the rules for their association?  An appellate court in Illinois has affirmed a trial court decision that the action is illegal and void and the association may not enforce its claims against some other members of the association.

The executive director of a small U.S. nonprofit cannot deduct travel expenses to support his activities on the board of a separate unrelated Brazilian nonprofit, the Tax Court has ruled.  The executive claimed that there was “no question” his activities advanced the interests of the U.S. nonprofit.  The Tax Court said: “As we see the matter, there are some questions about it.”