📖   Governance Hierarchy   📖

• • We’ve updated our governance hierarchy diagram to include more information.  It pairs well with a glass of whatever you’re drinking and our blog articles.

• What doesn’t the diagram explicitly reveal?  CIC Board decision-making comes last.  Washington State is home to at least two state supreme court cases addressing discretion.  Here are some quotes from our Duty of Care page:

• Discretion is not reasonably exercised when:

1. the procedures laid out in the governing documents and relevant statutes are not followed

2. the information used in the decision-making process is not reasonably accurate

• Courts do not owe deference to an association's interpretation of its governing documents, but courts do owe appropriate deference to an association's reasonable discretionary decisions.

• Riss suggests that when a [CIC] makes a discretionary decision in a procedurally valid way, courts will not substitute their judgment for that of the association absent a showing of "fraud, dishonesty, or incompetence (i.e., failure to exercise proper care, skill, and diligence).  Reasonable care is required."