The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld a statute setting requirements for charitable tax exemption for nonprofit hospitals.  The law was recently passed by the state legislature to require charitable hospitals to provide qualifying services or activities that equal or exceed in value of the hospital’s tax liability each year.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed two District Court decisions enjoining the state of California from requiring submission of the Form 990 Schedule B list of major donors in order to solicit charitable contributions within the state.  It has joined the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that recently held that a similar requirement in New York is constitutional and enforceable.  (See Nonprofit Issues^®, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1)

An appellate court in New York has affirmed a decision of the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board that the communications manager and a bookkeeper for the state Sheriffs’ Association, a nonprofit trade association, are employees for whom additional unemployment compensation insurance contributions are required.

The Court said the test for employment status was whether the alleged employer “exercises control over the results produced … or the means used to achieve the results.”

The president and a director of the Network of Neighbors, a 501(c)(3) organization on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, asked their new friends Scott and Danielle Pendergraft to join the board.  Not long thereafter, Scott became treasurer and Danielle, who had a background in event planning and public relations, became involved in event planning for the nonprofit.

When Kathryn Seymour executed her Amended Trust Agreement, she provided that upon her death the residue of her estate would go 50% to St. John’s United Church of Christ in Massillon, OH, 40% to the Massillon community hospital, and 10% to the local branch of the Salvation Army.  Before her death, however, the hospital was sold to a for-profit and became known as the Affinity Medical Center.  The bank trustee asked the trial court for a declaratory judgment on the question of the rightful recipient of the 40% interest.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a three-year prison sentence for a data-records supervisor at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, who pled guilty to stealing $33,000 as part of what the Museum claimed was a $900,000 binge over six years.  The Court affirmed the sentence based on guidelines for theft between $550,000 and $1.5 million.