## Facts

- Milton and Catherine Hershey created a charitable trust in 1909 to operate the Milton Hershey School, a residential school for needy children, funded by the trust’s assets.
- The trust instrument assigned administration of the school and management of trust assets to the Hershey Trust Company and a board drawn from its directors.
- The trust instrument provided that students cease receiving trust benefits when they complete the school’s secondary education and leave the institution.
- In 1930, former students and a former superintendent formed the Milton Hershey School Alumni Association; it was not named in the trust instrument and was not part of the trust’s governance structure.
- After concerns about trust administration, the Pennsylvania Attorney General investigated and participated in negotiating a 2002 agreement with the school and trustee regarding administration.
- In 2003, the parties modified the 2002 agreement; the Alumni Association opposed the modification and sued to rescind it and reinstate the 2002 agreement.

## Issues

1. Whether a school alumni association, not named in the trust instrument and composed of former students who no longer receive trust benefits, has a “special interest” sufficient to confer standing to challenge administration of a charitable trust.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reversed the Commonwealth Court and reinstated the Orphans’ Court dismissal for lack of standing.
- The court held the Alumni Association lacked a qualifying special interest to sue over charitable-trust administration.
- The court reaffirmed that the Attorney General is the proper representative of the public interest in enforcing charitable trusts, absent a special-interest exception.

## Legal Principles

- Enforcement of charitable trusts is generally vested in the Attorney General, who represents the public interest.
- A private party has standing to enforce or challenge a charitable trust only upon showing a “special interest” distinct from that of the general public.
- A special interest typically requires status as a designated beneficiary or a member of a small, well-defined beneficiary class with a direct stake in the trust.
- When the trust instrument defines beneficiaries and terminates benefits for a group, courts give controlling weight to that allocation in evaluating standing.
- Mere affiliation, support, or disagreement with the Attorney General’s enforcement choices does not create standing.

## Conclusion

Because the Alumni Association was not an intended beneficiary, its members were expressly excluded from ongoing trust benefits after graduation, and it held no formal administrative or fiduciary role, it lacked a special interest and could not sue to undo the Attorney General-approved modification of the administration agreement.


In re Milton Hershey Sch. & Hershey Tr. Co., 590 Pa. 35, 911 A.2d 1258 (Pa. 2006)