Opinion ID: 2831310
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Who Decides What

Text: Good Shepherd corporation’s bylaws prescribe who can vote when vestry members are elected, how the corporation’s vestry is elected, who can vote on proposed amendments to the bylaws, and how the bylaws and articles of incorporation are amended. The essential issue presented is whether either (1) the decision by Bishop Ohl to recognize the Episcopal Leaders and the loyal faction as the vestry and members of the continuing Good Shepherd Parish served to establish those vestry members as the vestry of the corporation and the loyal faction as the voters entitled to vote on 10 corporate matters when neither the articles of incorporation nor the bylaws afforded him that authority; or (2) his decision determined who was entitled to the corporation’s property regardless of the decisions of elected leaders of the corporation and persons specified by the corporate bylaws as qualified to vote on corporate affairs. In addressing the issue we are guided by two principles. The first is that a court has no authority to decide a dispute unless it has jurisdiction to do so. See, e.g., In re United Servs. Auto. Ass’n, 307 S.W.3d 299, 309 (Tex. 2010). The second is that Texas courts are bound by the Texas Constitution to decide disputes over which they have jurisdiction, and absent a lawful directive otherwise they cannot delegate or cede their judicial prerogative to another entity. See Morrow v. Corbin, 62 S.W.2d 641, 645 (1933) (“We are equally clear that the power thus confided to our trial courts [by the Constitution] must be exercised by them as a matter of nondelegable duty, that they can neither with nor without the consent of parties litigant delegate the decision of any question within their jurisdiction, once that jurisdiction has been lawfully invoked, to another agency or tribunal.”) (citations omitted).
The Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” U.S. CONST . amend. I. The clause “severely circumscribes the role that civil courts may play in resolving church property disputes,” Presbyterian Church v. Hull Church, 393 U.S. 440, 449 (1969), by prohibiting civil courts from inquiring into matters concerning “‘theological controversy, church discipline, ecclesiastical government, or the conformity of the members of a church to the standard of morals required of them.’” Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at 713-14 (quoting 11 Watson v. Jones, 80 U.S. 679, 733 (1872)). The First Amendment is applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. See Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303 (1940). Attempts by courts to resolve church property disputes while balancing the competing interests of property rights and the First Amendment’s Free Exercise provision have resulted in two general approaches to the issue. They are typically referred to as the “neutral principles of law” approach and the “deference” or “identity” approach. See, e.g., Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 595, 602-10 (1979) (discussing both approaches to church property disputes). The First Amendment does not require states to follow a particular method of resolving church property disputes; rather, “a State may adopt any one of various approaches for settling church property disputes so long as it involves no consideration of doctrinal matters, whether the ritual and liturgy of worship or the tenets of faith.” Id. at 602 (citing Md. & Va. Eldership of Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg, Inc., 396 U.S. 367, 368 (1970) (Brennan, J., concurring)) (emphasis in original).
The Supreme Court recently elaborated on its decision in Watson, which is often cited as the seminal case regarding the “deference” or “identity” approach in church property dispute cases: In [Watson], the Court considered a dispute between antislavery and proslavery factions over who controlled the property of the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church had recognized the antislavery faction, and this Court—applying not the Constitution but a “broad and sound view of the relations of church and state under our system of laws”—declined to question that determination. Id. at 727. [The Court] explained that “whenever the questions of discipline, or of faith, or ecclesiastical rule, custom, or law have been decided by the highest of [the] church judicatories to which the matter has been carried, the legal tribunals must accept such decisions as final, and as binding on them.” Ibid. As [the Court] would put it later, [the] opinion in Watson “radiates . . . a spirit of freedom for religious organizations, an independence from 12 secular control or manipulation—in short, power to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.” Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of Russian Orthodox Church in North America, 344 U.S. 94 (1952). Hosana-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Emp’t Opportunity Comm’n, ___ U.S. ___, 132 S.Ct. 694, 704 (2012) (emphasis added); see also Jones, 443 U.S. at 602. The deference approach embodies this general principle. A court applying the deference approach defers to and enforces the decision of the highest authority of the ecclesiastical body to which the matter has been carried. See Jones, 443 U.S. at 604-05. While the deference approach is based on principles set forth in Watson, Watson itself clarified that the First Amendment does not require a court to forego application of secular legal principles when resolving church property disputes: Religious organizations come before us in the same attitude as other voluntary associations for benevolent or charitable purposes, and their rights of property, or of contract, are equally under the protection of the law, and the actions of their members subject to its restraints. Conscious as we may be of the excited feeling engendered by this controversy, . . . we enter upon its consideration with the satisfaction of knowing that the principles on which we are to decide so much of it as is proper for our decision, are those applicable alike to all of its class, and that our duty is the simple one of applying those principles to the facts before us. 80 U.S. at 714. As the Court elaborated in Presbyterian Church v. Blue Hull Memorial Church, 393 U.S. 440, 449 (1969) and in Jones, “deference” is not a choice where ecclesiastical questions are at issue; as to such questions, deference is compulsory because courts lack jurisdiction to decide ecclesiastical questions. 443 U.S. at 602-03, 605. But when the question to be decided is not ecclesiastical, courts are not deprived of jurisdiction by the First Amendment and they may apply another Constitutionally acceptable approach. Id. 13
In Jones v. Wolf the Supreme Court approved the neutral principles methodology as constitutionally permissible. 443 U.S. at 604. Jones concerned the Vineville Presbyterian Church, which was incorporated under Georgia law and was a member church of the Augusta-Macon Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). The PCUS maintained a hierarchical form of government. Id. at 597-98. Under the PCUS polity, the actions of local churches were subject to review and control by higher church courts. Id. at 598. The powers and duties of each level of the church hierarchy were set out in the PCUS constitution, the Book of Church Order. Id. At a 1973 meeting, the Vineville Church’s pastor and a majority of its members voted to separate from the PCUS and unite with the Presbyterian Church in America. Id. The Augusta-Macon Presbytery of the PCUS concluded that the minority faction remaining loyal to the PCUS constituted “the true congregation of Vineville Presbyterian Church.” Id. The Presbytery then withdrew “all authority to exercise office derived from the PCUS” from the majority faction and the minority sued in state court to establish their right to exclusive possession of the church property. Id. at 598-99. The trial court granted judgment for the majority. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed, rejecting the minority faction’s First Amendment challenge and holding that the trial court had correctly applied neutral principles of law. Id. at 599. The United States Supreme Court affirmed. It held that the methodology employed by the Georgia courts was not constitutionally infirm. Id. at 600 (citing Carnes v. Smith, 222 S.E.2d 322 (Ga. 1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 868; Presbyterian Church v. E. Heights, 167 S.E.2d 658, 658-60 (Ga. 1969) (Presbyterian II), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 868). Under the neutral principles methodology, 14 ownership of disputed property is determined by applying generally applicable law and legal principles. That application will usually include considering evidence such as deeds to the properties, terms of the local church charter (including articles of incorporation and by laws, if any), and relevant provisions of governing documents of the general church. E.g., Jones, 443 U.S. at 602-03; see Presbyterian II, 167 S.E.2d at 659-60. The Court held that the First Amendment precluded neither application of neutral principles of law nor a state’s adopting a presumptive rule of majority rule. Jones, 443 U.S. at 604, 607. It noted that “any rule of majority representation can always be overcome, under the neutral-principles approach, either by providing in the corporate charter or the constitution of the general church, that the identity of the local church is to be established in some other way . . . [such as] by providing that the church property is held in trust for the general church and those who remain loyal to it[,]” or any other method that “does not impair free-exercise rights or entangle the civil courts in matters of religious controversy.” Id. at 607-08. Since the identity of the local Vineville congregation was a matter of state law, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Georgia Supreme Court. On remand the Georgia Supreme Court held that Georgia applies the presumptive majority rule to church identity and nothing in Georgia’s statutes or the relevant corporate charters, deeds, and organizational constitutions of the denomination rebutted that presumption “as to the right to control the actions of the titleholder.” Jones v. Wolf, 260 S.E.2d 84, 85 (Ga. 1979).
In Brown v. Clark, this Court addressed a dispute similar to both the one the Supreme Court addressed in Jones and the one now before us. 116 S.W. 360 (Tex. 1909). In that case, property had 15 been conveyed by general warranty deed to “trustees named for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church [of Jefferson, Texas].” Id. at 361. The dispute in the local church arose following a vote by the majority of the presbyteries of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America to reunite as one church. Id. at 362. This Court described the schism in the Jefferson church and resulting lawsuit as follows: There was at all times a strong minority which opposed the reunion, and, when the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church adopted the report and declared the union completed, the dissenting commissioners in attendance upon that General Assembly held a meeting, and organized another General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Much dissatisfaction prevailed in the churches of the Cumberland Presbyterian, and in the church at the city of Jefferson, Tex., there was a difference of opinion upon the subject of reunion among its members. Those who opposed the reunion instituted this action, claiming that they constituted the session of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Jefferson. The defendants in the action claimed to be the session of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, and were in possession of the property, and claimed that by the union the property had been transferred to the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. The case was tried before the judge without a jury, and a judgment was rendered in favor of the defendants-those who claimed under the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. The Court of Civil Appeals of the Sixth Supreme Judicial District reversed that judgment, and rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs below. Id. The principal issues presented were whether the General Assembly of the Cumberland Church had authority to reunite the Cumberland Church with the Presbyterian Church, and if so, how did the reunion affect the church property in Jefferson? Id. at 363-64. The Court held that the first issue was within the exclusive jurisdiction of the General Assembly because it was the highest court of the church, it had decided the question, and thus “there is no ground for action by this court.” Id. at 364. 16 As to the second issue, the Court noted that the question of how the reunion affected the property was “perhaps the only question in the case” over which it had jurisdiction. Id. As opposed to the first issue, which presented no basis on which the Court could consider the merits or take action, the Court addressed the merits of the second: The deed for the property was made to the trustees of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Jefferson, Tex. It expressed no trust nor limitation upon the title. The property was purchased by the church and paid for in the ordinary way of business, and there is not attached to that property any trust either express or implied. It follows, we think, as a natural and proper conclusion, that the church to which the deed was made still owns the property, and that whatever body is identified as being the church to which the deed was made must still hold the title. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Jefferson was but a member of and under the control of the larger and more important Christian organization, known as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and the local church was bound by the orders and judgments of the courts of the church. Watson v. Jones, 13 Wall. 727, 20 L. Ed. 666. The Jefferson church was not disorganized by the act of union. It remained intact as a church, losing nothing but the word ‘Cumberland’ from its name. Being a part of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the church at Jefferson was by the union incorporated into the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America. The plaintiffs in error and those members who recognize the authority of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America are entitled to the possession and use of the property sued for. Id. at 364-65 (emphasis added). See Rusk State Hosp. v. Black, 392 S.W.3d 88, 95 (Tex. 2012) (noting that the opinion of a court without jurisdiction is advisory to the extent it addresses issues other than the jurisdictional issue because the Texas Constitution does not authorize courts to make advisory decisions or issue advisory opinions); Valley Baptist Med. Ctr. v. Gonzalez, 33 S.W.3d 821,