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A Rhode Island woman leaves money in her will to fund a bed at a local hospital, in her father's name, for needy people. No big deal, right? Until a charity sues believing the hospital never provided the bed.
Oh, did we mention the woman died almost a century ago and the charity filed suit earlier this year?
Children's Friend and Service is suing Rhode Island Hospital in Providence after uncovering documents during an archives search for its 175th anniversary. Officials at the anti-poverty nonprofit believe a bed was never set aside after the $4,000 gift from Louisa G. Lippitt in 1912 to honor her late father, George Warren Hallett. The documents specified leaders of The Children's Friend Society in Providence would have the right to refer patients to the hospital.
A Boston lawyer representing the nonprofit told the Boston Globe the gift would be worth $1.5 million in 2008, if invested conservatively beginning in 1912. The 719-bed hospital, which has filed to have the suit dismissed, claims that the nonprofit has existed as a legal entity since 1949, though the charity says it was founded in 1834.
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