Opinion ID: 2505697
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Duty to Follow State Law

Text: Georgia statutory law, case law, and constitutional law undisputedly govern the proper resolution of this church property dispute. See Pindar's Georgia Real Estate Law and Procedure, 2 Ga. Real Estate Law & Procedure § 1-4 (6th ed.), p 6 (The law of Georgia controls and governs all real property within the state, both with respect to its acquisition, ownership, disposition, and evolution.); see also Chidsey v. Brookes, 130 Ga. 218, 220, 60 S.E. 529 (1908) (It is an acknowledged principle of law that the title and disposition of land is exclusively subject to the laws of the State where it is situated, and which alone can prescribe the mode by which title can pass from one person to another.). The economy of our state is founded on the principle of stable property law because, unless our rights to property are secure under the law, no one has any incentive to excel in the market so as to gain funds in order to acquire property. Yet, in this case, the law does not protect CCS's property, by allowing the National Church to take CCS's property without any deed, without any corporate authorization from CCS to convey its property, and without the benefit of any statutes that would allow for such transfer, and permitting the National Church, in effect, to transfer CCS's property to itself in violation of its statutory duty to act in the utmost good faith toward its confidential relation CCS. In the topsy-turvy world envisioned by the majority opinion, for what reason would an entity like CCS ever decide to buy or improve property for the benefit of the local community if it would lose its property contrary to the terms of any Georgia statute?