Law360 (October 2, 2024, 6:05 PM EDT) — A senior home on Martha’s Vineyard is exempt from property taxes, a Massachusetts tax panel said in a decision released Wednesday, ruling that the owner, a charitable nonprofit, had a sufficient presence at the property for the exemption.
The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board agreed with nonprofit Havenside Corp. that its four-building property was owned and operated in furtherance of its charitable goals. The property was therefore exempt from property taxation, the board said, reversing the determination of the Tisbury Board of Assessors and striking down the $12,000 tax bill the organization paid pursuant to its 2021 valuation.
The town assessment board had determined that the approximately 30 residents of the complex occupied the property in traditional landlord-tenant relationships. But the appellate board disagreed, noting that the owner provided extensive social and health services as well as affordable housing to residents who did not qualify for housing assistance and could not otherwise afford to own or rent in the community.
The owner employed a full-time manager who provided numerous services to residents in coordination with a local nursing association and other organizations, the decision said.
State law allows the tax exemption on real estate occupied by a charitable group or its officers “for the purposes for which it is organized,” the decision noted.
The decision was promulgated Sept. 24.
The case is Havenside Corp. v. Board of Assessors of the Town of Tisbury, case number F347297, before the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board.
Law360 (October 2, 2024, 10:25 PM EDT) — The nonprofit group Media Matters for America appealed to the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday after a Texas federal judge ordered it to turn over its donor lists to social media platform X Corp., saying that it still had a First Amendment privilege to keep the names of its donors private.
In a Tuesday motion to stay, the left-leaning media watchdog asked U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to stay the case until the Fifth Circuit could weigh in on whether Media Matters waived its First Amendment privilege against compelled disclosure of donor-related documents. Judge O’Connor previously ruled that the watchdog had waived its privilege, ordering the nonprofit to hand over the documents to X.
“No court in the United States has ever compelled a media organization to turn over — without even the prospect of redaction — every ‘donor and financial document’ in its possession,” Media Matters said in the Tuesday motion to stay.
X, formerly known as Twitter, launched the suit after a reporter at Media Matters penned an article titled “X has been placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content,” claiming the platform was responsible for neo-Nazi and antisemitic content being placed next to advertisers’ paid posts. The social media company said several advertisers fled the site because of alleged lies in the article.
In Media Matters’ telling, the court granted the requests based on conjecture that some of the documents in question could have bearing on jurisdiction or malice, despite first agreeing that turning over donor lists would likely go beyond the nonprofit’s First Amendment rights. The court skated past the “granularity” that the First Amendment demands, the nonprofit said.
The court’s conclusion that the watchdog’s First Amendment rights somehow don’t apply to their donors runs counter to the record of the case, the group said. Media Matters is in an “existential struggle” to sustain its journalism against a foe that seeks to silence its critics, it said in its brief.
The media watchdog also claims to have complied with previous court orders. A stay in the case would serve the public interest and prevent serious harm, it said.
“Should this Court’s order compelling disclosure of donors’ information remain in place, the harm will be immediate and irreparable,” Media Matters said. “Existing donors will face a substantially increased risk of threats, harassment, and reprisals, as Media Matters’s own employees have already experienced.”
In the wake of the suit, it said one harasser sent an image of a noose to Eric Hananoki, the reporter who wrote the article. Media Matters said a voicemail message threatened violence if the watchdog kept “pushing things,” and another harasser emailed a Media Matters reporter a photograph of him and his wife and wrote: “We know where you live. Expect a visit.”
To subject the watchdog’s donors to these kinds of threats would breach their right to associate privately, Media Matters said in an earlier filing. The threats against Media Matters’ staff have “exploded in both number and intensity” since X launched its lawsuit.
X is represented by Judd E. Stone II, Christopher D. Hilton, Ari Cuenin, Alexander M. Dvorscak and Michael R. Abrams of Stone Hilton PLLC and John C. Sullivan of SL Law PLLC.
Media Matters is represented by Andrew LeGrand, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. and Amer S. Ahmed of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Abha Khanna, Aria C. Branch, Christopher D. Dodge and Jacob D. Shelly of Elias Law Group LLP.
Files lawsuit against William Shocinski, Jr. and multiple businesses he has owned for thousands of violations of Minnesota’s consumer protection laws
September 4, 2024 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit against Minnesota resident William Shocinski, Jr. and businesses he has owned, Meraki Metal Art LLC, VO Metal Center MN LLC, VO Metal Art LLC, and VO Metal Art MN LLC (Shocinski Metals, collectively), for failing to deliver nearly $900,000 worth of products that consumers purchased. Attorney General Ellison alleges in the lawsuit that Shocinski and his businesses violated Minnesota consumer protection laws by failing to deliver products people ordered and paid for and made false, deceptive, and misleading statements about products offered for sale through their websites.
The lawsuit, filed in Hennepin County, accuses Shocinski and his companies of taking money from consumers nationwide, but failing to deliver more than half of the orders placed. Between August 2021 and December 2023, consumers ordered 28,793 products from Shocinski Metals. Shocinski Metals failed to deliver 12,484, or 43.3%, of those products, collecting $878,769.08 for products it did not deliver. In addition, Shocinski Metals sent damaged product, misspelled customized metal décor, or products that were not what the customer ordered on numerous occasions. Shocinski reported earning over $44,000 per month from his various businesses.
Attorney General Ellison further alleges that Shocinski and his businesses refused to provide refunds to consumers as a general practice, even for products they never delivered or products that were damaged, misspelled, or incorrect. Shocinski Metals advertised a refund policy that requires consumers to return a fictitious and non-existent form that Shocinski admitted he had never even seen. Shocinski admitted under oath that, instead of providing refunds, it was his practice for Shocinski Metals simply not to contest consumers’ fraud reports to their credit card companies, which would, in turn, refund the consumers.
The Attorney General also alleges that Shocinski and his companies repeatedly advertised non-existent affiliations with youth charities. Shocinski’s websites claimed that, “All Orders Help Support Our Local Youth Charity” and those websites included the following graphic claiming that a portion of each purchase goes to support Today’s Harbor for Children:
In reality, Minnesota-based Shocinski Metals has never supported Today’s Harbor for Children, a charity located in Texas that has never done work outside of Texas. In addition, Shocinski appears to have lifted the majority of his website from that of a Texas-based competitor, leading to a number of other miscellaneous misrepresentations, including about where the goods were manufactured.
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison alleges a number of other violations, including making untrue statements about delivery times before Christmas, leading consumers to believe that they would receive products in time for gifting to loved ones, when the businesses were either unwilling or incapable of providing those goods.
“It’s simple: when you order a product from a legitimate business online, you should receive that product,” Attorney General Ellison said. “If the business cannot fill that order, you should get your money back. Shocinski did not do that. Instead, he took people’s money, failed to send them anything, and ignored refund requests. That’s not business, it’s fraud. And his lying about supporting a charity for kids is just plain reprehensible. The number and sheer audacity of Shocinski’s scams and falsehoods are truly shocking, and I’m going to put a stop to them.”
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison asks the court to stop Shocinski and his companies from continuing to sell products, to impose civil penalties, and to fully restitute consumers whose money was taken without receiving a product.
Attorney General Ellison encourages Minnesotans to submit complaints about online retailers failing to deliver products you have ordered by filing a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office via its online complaint form. Consumers can also call the Office at (651) 296-3353 (metro area) or (800) 657-3787 (Greater Minnesota).
August 30, 2024 (SAINT PAUL) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison today announced that he has reached a settlement with professional fundraiser Ride to The Chip, LLC (“RTTC”) and its founders and members Tyrone Creer and Alice Arenson. In an Assurance of Discontinuance, Attorney General Ellison alleges that RTTC improperly withheld a portion of the funds that it raised for its charitable partner, the Magnus Veterans Foundation (“MVF”). The Assurance also alleges that RTTC misleadingly claimed that 100% of the funds raised would go to charity when a portion of the funds went toward their profit, and that the organization failed to give donors legally required disclosures about, among other things, its for-profit status. The Assurance further alleges that RTTC failed to register as a professional fundraiser and file reports with the Office.
The Assurance bans RTTC and its founders from all future professional fundraising activities and requires RTTC and its founders to pay back MVF the money they owe the charity. The Assurance further requires the signers to pay $75,000 if they violate any part of the Assurance in the future.
“It is unacceptable for a fundraiser hired by a charity to keep money they specifically raised for that charity,” Attorney General Ellison said. “And we further won’t allow groups to falsely claim every penny of donations will go to charity when some of the money lines their own pockets. People who fundraise for charities need to register with our Office and follow the rules intended to make sure these dollars go to help the public and that donors are properly informed.”
Creer and Arenson founded RTTC in 2022, after which it organized a motorcycle ride from the Twin Cities to the Buffalo Chip Campground in South Dakota to fundraise for MVF. In 2023, the Attorney General’s Office received a complaint regarding concerns that a donation did not go MVF, as intended. The Charities Division launched an investigation under Minnesota’s civil charitable solicitation and charitable trust laws, which require those who hold charitable assets to adhere to strict registration requirements and fiduciary duties. In Minnesota, the Attorney General through the Charities Division has civil, not criminal, enforcement authority over the state’s charitable solicitation and charitable trust laws.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office makes available a number of publications and pamphlets about charitable organizations, charitable trusts, professional fundraisers, and nonprofit organizations generally:
“A Guide to Minnesota’s Charities Laws” discusses key laws including the Minnesota Nonprofit Corporation Act, the Charitable Solicitation Act, and the Supervision of Charitable Trusts and Trustees Act, among other laws that require certain organizations to register with and provide notice to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
“Guide for Board Members” covers fiduciary duties of directors of nonprofit corporations and is meant to assist board members with the important responsibilities they assume when elected to a charity’s board of directors.
“Nonprofit Organization Resources” contains a listing of resources covering charitable solicitation, professional fundraiser, and charitable trust registration, government agency contacts, and training and technical assistance providers.
