Court Opinion

ID: 9613692
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:19:15.494789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:31.032517
License: Public Domain

Townsend, J.,
concurring specially. I concur in the judgment of affirmance, but do not agree that the plaintiff here was “suing individually and joining the Alpaha River Primitive Baptist Association with the individual in an effort to sustain his cause of action.” The church association not being alleged to be an individual, partnership, or corporation, could not be a party defendant. Barbour v. Albany Lodge, No. 24, F & A.M., 73 Ga. 474; Knox v. Greenfield’s Estate, 7 Ga. App. 305 (66 S. E. 805). There are no allegations which charge the defendants with any of the acts alleged so as to make it appear that they were not acting as officers of the church in writing, agreeing to, or circularizing among the membership the letter of which complaint is made. The petition fails to set up the rules of church procedure followed by this group or to make it appear that the publication of the letter was not a proper, or even a mandatory, function of the defendants in their capacity as church officers, for which reason it is clear that no individual liability is alleged against the defendants, either for the commission of acts in an individual, rather than an official capacity (as was the case in Swafford v. Keaton, 23 Ga. App. 238, 98 S. E. 122), or for individual liability in exceeding the authority granted them by the church in the commission of such acts.
As stated in Watson v. Jones, 80 U. S. 679, 729 (20 L. ed. 666): “All who unite themselves with a religious body do so with an implied consent to this government and are bound to submit to it.” The essence of independence of church groups is that they make their own decisions and for anyone dissatisfied to be able to appeal to courts would destroy freedom. Assuming, in the absence of allegations to the contrary, that the conduct alleged by the defendant church officers is a regular procedure of the church —the plaintiff, on joining that organization, submitted himself to its form of government and jurisdiction; and its acts, carried out by its duly authorized officers, would be privileged. This is certainly true where, as here, no property right is involved and no infraction of the civil law alleged.
*596I am authorized to say that Carlisle, J., joins in this special concurrence.