Animal Charities Take N.Y. State Attorney General to Court Over Helmsley Foundation

An affidavit was filed today on behalf of three large animal-welfare groups that are challenging the estate of the deceased hotelier, Leona M. Helmsley, who died in 2007. The affidavit claims that the attorney general of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, failed to “discharge his duties” in the case and failed to uphold donor intent.

The affidavit was filed this morning in the Surrogate’s Court of the State of New York by William Josephson, a retired lawyer who led the New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau from 1999 to 2004. It was filed on behalf of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of United States, and Maddie’s Fund.

The three animal-welfare groups filed a joint lawsuit in August challenging the trustees of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and appealing a February court ruling that said the trustees did not have to limit the distribution of Ms. Helmsley’s estate, worth an estimated $5.2-billion, to charities that focus on the care and welfare of dogs.

The ruling was significant because it raised questions about how tightly trustees of a philanthropist’s estate are legally bound to disperse bequest money to charities or causes designated by the donor.

At issue were exactly which causes Ms. Helmsley wanted to support.

Ms. Helmsley directed in a mission statement she signed in 2004 that her foundation support the care and welfare of dogs. That statement revoked a similar document she signed in 2003 that said she wanted her foundation to support the care and welfare of dogs and “medical and health-care services for indigent people, with emphasis on providing care to children.”

The two mission statements were not physically attached to Ms. Helmsley’s will, which she signed in 2005, and which did not specifically mention her desire to help animal or canine groups.

In the February ruling, Judge Troy K. Webber found that the document that established the charitable trust does not require the trustees to refer to the mission statement when disbursing Ms. Helmsley’s bequest money, and that it grants the trustees “sole discretion” to give money to any charity or cause they choose.

In the affidavit filed this morning on behalf of the animal-welfare groups, Mr. Josephson, who was hired by the three groups and is an expert on the subject of charitable trusts and donor intent, writes that Mr. Cuomo has “failed to fulfill his statutory obligations and the standards required of the charities bureau by failing to construe the governing trust properly.”

He writes that representatives of the causes and beneficiaries Ms. Helmsley mentioned in her 2004 mission statement should be allowed to “advocate for and enforce the donor’s intent.”

Mr. Cuomo and the attorney general’s office had not yet responded to the affidavit.