Man Sues Salvation Army

11/01/07

The deceased, Richard Jose Belanger of West Palm Beach, FL, left $106,000 to the Salvation Army in his name. However, after the charity took more than $120,000 from Belanger's account, his son, Richard Jason Belanger, sued, claiming "the Salvation Army improperly took the money left for it in Belanger's payable-on-death bank account," says an article on Yahoo! Finance India.

But the reason behind the lawsuit lies in the type of account in which the money was left. Usually, only people can take money from "these types of accounts." And according to the suit, "the account his father left for the charity is [therefore allegedly] invalid."

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The family's attorney, John Cooney, said, "It doesn't matter what the decedent intended. If the decedent wanted to leave money for charity, that's why we have wills."

However, uninvolved attorney Michele Maracini said that "people frequently use this type of account...by leaving an account in trust for a specific person, the recipient is able to bypass the probate process."

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Along with $106,000 in a bank account "in trust for" the Salvation Army "to be paid upon his death," Belanger also left $15,000 in a different account, which he assigned to his two sons, Richard and Nathan. However, according to Cooney, the sons were "shocked" at the drastically varied amounts of money. And after they informed the charity of Belanger's death in July, the sons "intended to seek a judgment declaring the pay-on-death account invalid."

What happened next was "not the conduct you think of when you think of the Salvation Army," said Cooney. After a complaint was made by the estate and the charity given the option to collect 50% of the money, thus avoiding any legal battles, the Salvation Army agreed to present the proposal to its board of trustees. While the estate waited, however, the charity proceeded to collect the money from Belanger's accounts.

"We thought that if the Salvation Army said, 'No, we don't agree' [with a proposed settlement], they'd tell us to get lost and challenge us in court," said Cooney. "We didn't expect them to tell us they'd think about the offer...while going behind our back to find out where the money was."

The outcome of this case could set the standard for all other charities receiving money in Florida.