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Probate-court case continues over 91-year-old charity fund
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
YOUNGSTOWN
It will take a little while longer to conclude Mahoning County’s longest- running court case and streamline and modernize the administration of a 91-year-old charitable fund.
The case pertains to the William Swanston Charitable Fund, which was created with $100,000 from the will of William H. Swanston, a Canfield Township farmer who died in 1919. Today, the fund’s assets total nearly $7 million.
Lawyers for the fund; PNC Bank, trustee of the Youngstown Foundation; and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which oversees charitable organizations, assembled before Probate Judge Mark Belinky on Tuesday. They said they’d work on an agreed-upon judgment entry. That entry would settle the case if the judge approves it.
Swanston intended that his estate be used to establish an orphanage.
Since that goal is no longer practical, the fund now leases to the county children-services board a Broadway Avenue group home it bought and renovated, and allocates money to various local organizations serving abused, neglected and dependent children.
To date, the probate court has decided how best to manage the fund in a practical way that most closely approximates Swanston’s intent.
The Swanston Fund trustees want Judge Belinky’s approval to:
Switch the fund’s beneficiary from the Youngstown Foundation to the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley.
Broaden the fund’s service area from just Mahoning County to the Mahoning Valley, which would include Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
Switch the appointing authority for fund trustees from the probate court to the Community Foundation.
Dismiss the court case because court oversight will no longer be necessary once the above changes are made.
In the event the matter isn’t settled by the parties to the case, another probate-court hearing will be at 11 a.m. Oct. 12, the judge ruled.