Maddox Foundation Gets Direction from Court

A Davidson County judge gave direction this week to a local charitable foundation that’s been tied up in courts for years.

Shortly after the accidental deaths of Dan and Margaret Maddox in 1998, one of the family’s foundation directors moved the trust fund to Mississippi. Among the questionable purchases made from the foundation was a minor league hockey team. A lawsuit filed by Davidson County District Attorney Torry Johnson brought half of the trust back Nashville – roughly 55-million dollars.

Wednesday’s ruling establishes a five-member committee that will name a new board of directors for the fund. Lewis Lavine of Nashville’s Center for Non-Profit Management worked as a consultant on the Maddox case.

“There is some question about their actual intention. There are some primary sources that describe what they had in mind. As was described in the courtroom yesterday, it’s going to focus primarily on young people and on environmental issues.”

The new board of directors will oversee the distribution of nearly 3-million dollars in grants each year. That’s on par with many of the corporate foundations in Nashville and a million more than Metro government budgets annually for non-profits. Lavine says he hopes the Nashville-based Maddox Foundation can be up and running by the end of this summer.