Opinion ID: 2505697
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Title Instruments.

Text: This case focuses on four parcels of real estate conveyed to The Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church in Savannah and their predecessors over the course of nearly three centuries. Christ Church acquired title to the church building parcel now known as 28 Bull Street by land grants from the royal government in 1758 and the post-Revolution state government in 1789. Indentures conveyed fee simple interests in the parish house parcel at 18 Abercorn Street in 1940; the first part of the school parcel at 134 Houston Street in 1947; and the parcel containing the two parking lots at the corner of Congress and Drayton Streets in 1994. The remainder of the school parcel was conveyed by warranty deed in 1958. Although Jones v. Wolf speaks mainly of deeds and conveyances of the sort at issue in that case, see 443 U.S. at 597, 600-601, 603, 606, 609, 99 S.Ct. 3020, we understand the first neutral principle to be examination of whatever legal instruments of title were used to transfer the property at issue. See id. at 603, n. 3, 99 S.Ct. 3020 (referring to the `express terms' of a deed, will, or other instrument of church property ownership (quoting Watson v. Jones, 80 U.S. at 722)). [4] We agree with the trial court and the Court of Appeals that none of the title instruments in this case create a trust in favor of the Episcopal Church. See Christ Church v. Bishop, 305 Ga.App. at 89-90, 699 S.E.2d 45. But they also do not preclude the creation of one. See Timberridge, 290 Ga. at ___, ___ S.E.2d ___. The Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church in Savannah, like other legal titleholders in fee simple, had the authority to place its property in trust or to act in ways that would impress a trust on the property. Given that the instruments of title neither include nor prohibit a trust in favor of the general church, they have a limited role in the neutral principles analysis in this case, and so we turn to consideration of other neutral principles. See id.