Nashville judge finds foundation’s out-of-state move illegal
NASHVILLE — Tennessee officials have scored a victory in a legal fight to bring one of Mississippi’s largest charitable foundations back to Nashville.
A Nashville judge has ruled that Robin G. Costa, the president of the Maddox Foundation, illegally moved the $100 million nonprofit group to Hernando, Miss. in 1999 because she failed to get a Tennessee court’s approval.
District Attorney General Torry Johnson sued Costa, seeking to get the organization returned to Nashville. The lawsuit also alleges Costa mismanaged the foundation’s assets when she purchased minor league sports teams in DeSoto County, Miss., for $1.7 million and paid herself $300,000.
Tommye Maddox Working, who is a foundation trustee, has said that foundation founder Dan Maddox, who was her step-grandfather and a prominent Nashville businessman, intended for its assets to benefit charities in Middle Tennessee, not Mississippi.
Costa did not return a call seeking comment about Tuesday’s ruling by Davidson County Probate Judge Randy Kennedy. The foundation has previously denied the allegations of mismanagement.
The foundation, formed in 1968 by Dan Maddox and his wife Margaret, primarily awards grants in the areas of conservation, education, health care, human services and religion. The Maddoxes were killed in a 1998 Louisiana boating accident, and their estate was processed through the Nashville probate court.
Costa and Working are the foundation’s only two board members.
“This (ruling) is a significant step for the return of the Middle Tennessee charities’ assets,” Working’s attorney Woody Woodruff said Wednesday.
But officials in Mississippi also have gone to court to block the foundation from going anywhere. A lawsuit by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is pending.
Woodruff said a Mississippi judge agreed earlier this month to hold a hearing on Sept. 7 on whether the foundation’s move from Tennessee was legal. Woodruff said the Mississippi lawsuit is “a scheme to try to deprive Tennessee of its jurisdiction.”
A federal judge has previously ruled the dispute should be decided in Mississippi state courts, but Tennessee officials say the decision does not apply to their case.
The Maddox Foundation owns the Memphis RiverKings professional ice hockey team and the Memphis Xplorers professional arena football team, which are prime tenants of the county-owned DeSoto Civic Center. The foundation has also is leading an effort to put a computer in every public classroom in the state.
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On the Net:
Maddox Foundation: http://www.maddoxfoundation.org