The Montana state Supreme Court has reversed a jury verdict of $4 million in compensatory damages and $31 million in punitive damages awarded to two children who were sexually abused by a member of a local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The children had claimed that the Congregation had a duty to report the abuse to the state when it was reported.  The Court said that reporting is not required if a communication is required to be confidential by canon law, church doctrine, or established church practice.

A nonprofit CEO who accepted a substantial salary approved by the board of directors can not be sued for breach of fiduciary duty for taking excessive compensation, a Bankruptcy Court in New York City has ruled.  But the CEO can be pursued for “limbo pay” used for personal expenses and not reported as additional compensation.

The federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that the National Labor Relations Board cannot force Duquesne University, a Catholic university in Pittsburgh, PA, to bargain with its adjunct faculty members under the National Labor Relations Act.  In a divided opinion, it has extended the exclusion previously applied to all regular faculty members at a religious institution to its adjunct faculty as well.

An antique car museum in Maine that is a permissible beneficiary of a separate trust created by the museum’s founder to support antique car museums has standing to sue the trustees of the trust and reopen the litigation, even after the trustees have settled the claims with the state Attorney General.  The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine has reversed a trial court decision dismissing the claims.

A federal District Court in the District of Columbia has dismissed a case challenging the constitutionality of requiring a 501(c)(3) organization of religious nonbelievers to file an annual Form 990 tax information return while not requiring churches to do so also.  

More than ten years after Ruston Louisiana Hospital Company, LLC purchased substantially all of the assets of Lincoln General Hospital from the Lincoln Health System and began operating the hospital on a for-profit basis, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services gave Ruston notice that it was being asked to repay more than $700,000 in overpayments of Medicare made to Lincoln before the sale. 

Old White Charities, which operates the Greenbrier Classic golf tournament on the Professional Golfers’ Association tour to raise funds for charitable purposes, ran a promotional contest for the 2015 event to give a cash gift to anyone in the stands at the time a golfer shot a hole-in-one on the 18^th hole.  It engaged an insurance broker to obtain insurance to cover any payout that might be necessary if someone actually shot a hole-in-one.