Omaha daily bee., 1905-06-23
ENDS MURPHY. .BONLCUMCASE'
Supreme Court Holds Civil Court Had
No Jurisdiction.
MUST AWAIT A DECISION FROM ROME
Board of Assessment Completes It's
work by Fixing Valuation of
the santa Fe Road at
y e2S,OOO.
AWAIT A DECISION FROM ROME
tFrom a stan correspondento

LINCOLN, Neb.. June 22.-(special) I'm
It's opinion in the case Of Murphy against
Bonacum, handed down by the supreme
court this morning and recognized as one
OF the most sweeping and most important
decisions of the court in many months.
the court ruled that it would not pass
controversy to ownership or possession
OF property when the parties claiming the
same derive their right from a church or
church society
BY right of his position as a bishop in
the Catholic church Bishop Bonacum sought
TO oust Father William Murphy from pos
session of church property at Seward. The
case has been in the courts for a num-
Der of years and has several times been
passed upon by the supreme court until
now the question has developed into an In
depreciation Of the canons OF the church
and the standing of the two in the church.
In the lower court the bishop secured the
injunction. but in the opinion today the
supreme court reverses ali Of It's own
former decisions, reverses the opinion of
the lower court and tells the principals to
settle their difficulties with the authorities
OF Rome, and throws the case out of court
Commissioner Ames wrote the opinion and
in his syllabus said;
F1rst-The courts will not entertain a
controversy concerning the title or right
or possession OF real or personal property
except at the instance Of some person or
persons having OF claiming a right thereto
derived from, or recognized by, the laws
or TINS state or OF the United States.
Second--The courts of this state will not
review the process or proceedings of church
tribunals for the purpose of deciding
ecclesiastical jurisdiction nor will they at
tempt to decide upon the membership or
spiritual status of persons belonging or
claiming TO belong to religious societies.
In the opinion the commissioner said:
This injunction strikes us as not the
least remarkable of the proceedings under
II was held to be by the former opinion
v and let II be supposed also that it shall
the decision made of record and exempli-
fed in satisfactory manner ano one OF
the courts of this state will sit in review
of II as upon appeal, or more properly upon
certiorari a thing which reason and the
authorities are unanimous in saying they
cannot do, or else they will humby and un-
hesitatingly register and enforce the decree
or sentence of independent and alien power
having its seat of spiritual and temporal
sovereignty in the ancient city of Rome
proceeding for which there is no pre-
cedent in the United States nor 1t is be-
b ieved in any court whose records are writ
y ten in the English language. But If neither
of these consequences is admitted then the
Injunction has no practical end or aim and
deals with controversy of which the
courts OF this state can righfully take
esteem II.
The opinion. which was adopted by the
court, concludes follows:
II is recommended that the former de-
sision of this court and the Judgment o1
lhe district court be wholly reversed, va
.ated and set aside and the cause remandeC
with directions that the action, both upor
he petition and upon the cross-petition, b'
dismissed. each party to pay his own costs
ion of the rights OF either party, II eithe'
aas any, under the laws Of this state, Il
he property In dispute.
Father Murphy Satisfied.
: Father Murphy of Seward, one of tn
principals in the long-drawn-out case O.
Bonacum against Murphy, which was de
ided by the supreme court this morning
vas in Lincoln this afternoon and ex
pressed himself as being well pleased will