Legal Battle Grows Over Keeping Multimillion Gift to Tuscaloosa Salvation Army in Local Hands
An already long legal battle to keep a late woman's multimillion-dollar gift to the Salvation Army of Tuscaloosa in local hands is growing larger as the region's three largest governments decide whether to join it.
At issue is a part of the wealth left behind by Marie "Mollie" Campbell Haley Bloodworth, who reportedly built a fortune by decades of investing in AFLAC stock
"Mollie" was a Tuscaloosa native who moved away to Columbus, Georgia to live with her husband Clifton Bloodworth until he died in 1993. She then came home and lived a quiet life in the Druid City until she died in November 2016.
Then her will was read, and it left $15 million to be split amongst six charities with a presence in west Alabama, in Clifton's memory.
That seems simple enough, but in 2018, representatives of the Bloodworth estate distributed about 60 percent of the funds and sent $1.5 million to each nonprofit. Disagreement broke out about the funds sent to the Salvation Army.
According to court documents obtained by the Tuscaloosa Thread, the Salvation Army corporation does not see its local branches as individual legal entities. Instead, they are arms of regional corporations - in this case, "the Salvation Army, a Georgia nonprofit corporation with its principal place of business in Atlanta, Georgia."
"The 'Salvation Army of Tuscaloosa' is a branch of The Salvation Army and is a Corps center for worship and service, not a separate entity authorized to conduct business or accept donations on behalf of The Salvation Army, a Georgia nonprofit corporation," the corporation explained in one court document.
So when the first Bloodworth money came in, the Salvation Army distributed it according to their own established rules. 68 percent of the donation stayed in the Tuscaloosa area, with more than half a million dollars each distributed to the local capital reserve fund and the local quasi-endowment fund.
But the rest of the money - about $500,000 - went elsewhere, to the Salvation Army corporation in Georgia, split among capital reserve funds, retirement reserves, an annuity & legacy promotion fund, the health care provision reserves and more.
The corporate Salvation Army claims in legal documents that the Representative of the Bloodworth Estate has fully paid out distributions to some of the other nonprofits in her will but is withholding the last million dollars from the Salvation Army because members of the local Salvation Army advisory board are not happy with how the first round was distributed.
The matter has been tied up in probate court, but last May, it was transferred to Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court, where the matter is before Judge Daniel Pruet.
Through Birmingham attorneys, the corporate Salvation Army in Georgia has asked Pruet to make a declaratory judgment and have the remaining money released to be split up the same way the first $1.5 million was - with 68 percent staying here and the other 32 percent going to other funds.
On the other side of this legal fight, local heavyweights are lining up. Four current and former members of the Tuscaloosa Salvation Army advisory board have asked to be allowed to intervene - they are board member Eric Wilson, former Tuscaloosa Police Chief Ken Swindle, former Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ted Sexton and former judge John England, Jr.
In a motion to intervene filed last month, those four said it is clear in Bloodworth's will and her attorney has attested that she intended for the money to be used solely for the benefit of those in need here in Tuscaloosa County.
"Despite this evidence regarding Mrs. Bloodworth's intent, the Salvation Army intends to supplant [her] wishes with its own internal policies and use a large portion of [her] gift for its own corporate expenses outside of Tuscaloosa County," the four men said in a motion.
Other legal reinforcements may also be on the way - the city governments in Tuscaloosa and Northport and the Tuscaloosa County Commission are weighing whether to also intervene in the case. The Northport City Council will hear the matter Monday night, city attorney Ron Davis told the Thread.
"The Salvation Army of Georgia - the parent corporation - has hired a Birmingham law firm to try to get their cut of a substantial amount of money out of Tuscaloosa County, but bequest was made out to the Salvation Army of Tuscaloosa, not of Atlanta," Davis said. "What this case needs is an actual, bonafide plaintiff that has an interest in the case, somebody who is a legal entity and damaged by taking that money out of the area. Well, the local Salvation Army may not a legal entity, their local advisory board is not a legal entity, but by god, the city of Northport is, the city of Tuscaloosa is, and Tuscaloosa County is."
On the agenda for the Northport City Council's regularly scheduled Monday night meeting is a resolution that "allows the City of Northport to intervene in a pending lawsuit to keep money left in a will to the "Salvation Army of Tuscaloosa" for use by the local Salvation Army to assist local residents rather than being sent to the corporate headquarters of the Salvation Army."
Whether the governments choose to get involved, and whether Judge Pruet will allow them or anyone else to intervene in the matter is yet to be seen.
Both local leadership in Tuscaloosa and the Salvation Army's divisional leadership in Mississippi said they were unable to comment on the issue because of pending litigation.
UPDATE: The Northport City Council unanimously voted to allow Davis to file a motion seeking them to be allowed to intervene in the case Monday night.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The original version of this story incorrectly identified one of the proposed interveners as TCS board chairman Eric Wilson - the intervener in the motion is his father, who sits on the local advisory board and shares the name. The Thread regrets the error and is happy to set the record straight.
For ongoing coverage of the issue as it develops, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.
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