A federal District Court in Minnesota has dismissed a suit by an alumnus of St. John’s University seeking to recover a gift he claimed was “mishandled” in the University’s endowment fund.

An estate tax deduction for the value of stock passed to a charity may be modified by subsequent events, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed.  Post-death “manipulation” of the value of the stock so that the amount actually received by the charity is substantially below the value of the stock bequeathed at the donor’s death justifies a reduction in the estate tax deduction to the amount received by the charity.

Despite his vow of poverty and commitment to provide all of his property to his religious order, when a retired Jesuit priest named his sister-in-law as the beneficiary of his retirement plans, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) prevents a claim under state contract theory, the federal District Court in Connecticut has ruled.  It has dismissed a claim by the priest’s Province seeking a declaratory judgment that it was entitled to the funds. 

An unincorporated nonprofit association in Ohio can’t file suit in court without the assistance of an attorney, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

A California appellate court has reversed a trial court decision that a director of a public benefit nonprofit lost her standing to sue the organization and another director for self-dealing and breach of fiduciary duty when she was removed from the board following initiation of her suit.  In what is apparently a case of first impression in the state, the Court said that a close reading of the Corporations Code and the needs of public policy justified its ruling that the plaintiff could continue to lead the case.

A bylaw “addendum” of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in San Francisco contains an unusual set of voting requirements that has required nearly six years of litigation to interpret.  A Court of Appeal in California has affirmed a trial court decision that a motion to prohibit display of the Republic of China flag at Association meetings failed to pass despite having received a majority of the votes cast at an Association meeting.