Brief Fact Summary. The trustees (Defendant) of the Lucy Webb School, a nonprofit institution that provided health care to the poor, failed to invest the school’s liquid assets.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Trustees of charitable corporations must exercise general supervision over investment decisions and have a duty to avoid participation in transactions in which they have an interest.
Issue. Must trustees of charitable corporations exercise general supervision over investment decisions and do they have a duty to avoid participation in transactions in which they have an interest?
Held. (Gesell, J.) Yes. Trustees of charitable corporations must exercise general supervision over investment decisions and have a duty to avoid participation in transactions in which they have an interest. Both trustees and corporate directors can be liable for losses that happen because of negligent mismanagement of investments. Generally, trustees are held to a higher standard of care and are liable for simple negligence. However, the gross negligence standard for corporate directors is more appropriate in cases involving trustees of charitable organizations. It is also proper to apply the lower standard with regard to non-management. Trustees of charitable companies should be allowed to delegate investment decisions to a committee as long as the directors are responsible to supervise. For accusations of self-dealing, trustees are not absolutely barred from placing funds under their control in their own institutions. However, there must be full disclosure. In this case, the trustees (Defendant) did not exercise any supervision over the Hospital’s (Defendant) investment decisions. Some of the trustees also knowingly allowed the Hospital (Defendant) to enter into transactions with related companies and did not disclose the relationship. Therefore, those trustees (Defendant) violated their fiduciary duties to the Hospital (Defendant). Concerning the investments of the Hospital (Defendant), the appropriate committees are ordered to present statements to the full board.
As the discussion below indicates, however, the modern trend is to apply corporate rather than trust principles in determining the liability of the directors of charitable corporations, because their functions are virtually indistinguishable from those of their pure corporate counterparts.
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