Court Opinion

ID: 9755735
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:49:05.327391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:10.560551
License: Public Domain

ANNABELLE Clinton Imber, Justice, dissenting. The majorELLE opinion in this case faüs to give effect to the Constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as amended in 1984, which expressly provides that all property held by local churches is held in trust for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church: 3.32 The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a connectional church and all lower judicatories of the church to wit: synod, presbytery, and the particular churches are parts of that body and therefore all property held by or for a particular church, a presbytery, a synod, the General Assembly, or the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, whether legal title is lodged in a corporation, a trustee or trustees, or an unincorporated association, and whether the property is used in programs of the particular church or of a more inclusive judicatory or retained for the production of income, and whether or not the deed to the property so states, is held in trust nevertheless for the use and benefit of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.1  In Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 595 (1979), the United States Supreme Court sanctioned the use of such an express trust provision in a hierarchical or connectional church’s constitution to resolve church property disputes, if the trust provision becomes effective before the dispute arises: Under the neutral-principles approach, the outcome of a church property dispute is not foreordained. At any time before the dispute erupts, the parties can ensure, if they so desire, that the faction loyal to the hierarchical church will retain the church property. They can modify the deeds or the corporate charter to include a right of reversion or trust in favor of the general church. Alternatively, the constitution of the general church can be made to recite an express trust in favor of the denominational church. The burden involved in taking such steps will be minimal. And the civil courts will be bound to give effect to the result indicated by the parties, provided it is embodied in some legally cognizable form. Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. at 606 (emphasis added.)2 The chancellor in this case was bound to give effect to the Constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as amended in 1984, because it was in effect for several years before the dispute between the parties arose. Such a holding is also supported by decisions from other jurisdictions. In Bethany Independent Church v. Stewart, 645 So.2d 715 (La. Ct. App. 1994), a local affiliate of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church sought to disassociate itself from the general church. In doing so, the local congregation formed a corporation called the Bethany Independent Church and transferred all of the local church’s assets to the new corporation, including three tracts of real estate. The general church intervened in the dispute and the trial court resolved the issue in favor of the local church. The Louisiana Court of Appeals reversed and relied solely on the 1984 amendments to the church constitution regarding ownership of church property; that is, the very same provisions at issue here. The court specifically noted that the local church had subjected itself to the rules, governmental structure, and doctrine of the general church prior to the dispute, which arose in 1992. Id. at 720. The court held: “Based on an examination of the documents in purely secular terms, we conclude it was the intention of the parties, agreed upon before the dispute arose, to be bound by the provisions of the [church’s constitution, as amended in 1984], including those provisions relative to property.” Id. at 722 (emphasis added). Like the situation currendy before this court, the deeds to the property in Bethany Independent Church v. Stewart were executed in 1872, 1955, and 1960, long before the 1984 amendments to the church constitution. Id. However, the court clearly looked to the constitution in effect when the dispute between the parties arose, instead of the provisions in effect at the time the deeds were executed. Id. See also, Shirley v. Christian Episcopal Methodist Church, 748 So. 2d 672 (Miss. 2000) (looking to the hierarchical church’s 1994 Book of Discipline to resolve a dispute regarding property deeded to the trustees of the local church in 1947); Cumberland Presbytery of the Synod of the Mid-West of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church v. Branstetter, 824 S.W.2d 417 (Ky. 1992) (the terms of the Constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as amended in 1984, governed at the time the property dispute arose in 1987, even though title to the property was held by a local church that had been in existence since 1911); Fonken v. Community Church of Kamrar, 339 N.W.2d 810 (Iowa 1983) (looking to church documents in effect at the time the schism within the local church occurred in 1980 even though the property was originally acquired in 1881); Presbytery of Elijah Parish Lovejoy v. Jaeggi, 682 S.W.2d 465 (Mo. 1984) (looking to the constitution of the general church as it existed on the date the local church terminated its association with the general ,church); and Carnes v. Smith, 222 S.E.2d 322 (Ga. 1976) (the express trust provisions of the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline, which provides that the church property is held by local trustees for the benefit of the general church, governed in a dispute where property was deeded in 1852 to the “trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church [UMC’s predecessor] at Mount Pleasant Academy.”). Some jurisdictions have established a rule applicable in situations such as this, whereby a trust provision in a general church’s constitution is given effect even though the trust provision was not in place at the time the disputed property was acquired, “so long as a court finds that the trust provisions were declaratory of existing church policy.” Trustees of the Diocese of Albany v. Trinity Episcopal Church of Gloversville, 250 A.D.2d 282, 288 (N.Y. App. Div.1999) (citing Rector, Wardens & Vestrymen of Trinity-St. Michael’s Parish, Inc. v. Episcopal Church in Diocese of Connecticut, 620 A.2d 1280, 1292-1293 (Conn. 1993)). Here, the trust provision added to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church’s Constitution in 1984 was clearly declaratory of existing church policy. The New Cumberland Presbyterian Digest of 1920. stated, in relevant part: Resolved, that it is the sense of this Assembly that the rightful ownership of and title to church property belonging to a disorganized congregation, or of abandoned church property is and should be in the Presbytery in whose bounds it is located, provided there are no provisions in the deed of conveyance directing what shall become of the property when it ceases to be used for church purposes. The Cumberland Presbyterian Digests of 1957 and 1975 provided, in relevant part: In case the local congregation dissolves or ceases to exist, the property still belongs beneficially in trust to the people of the faith [the Cumberland Presbyterian Church] for which the conveyance was originally made. ... Under these circumstances it has been the impression in our denomination that the title in some way is transferred to the Presbytery in which the property is situated. Therefore, at all times prior to the 1984 amendments, church policy stated that the property of a disorganized or dissolved local congregation came under control of the Presbytery or general church. The 1984 amendments did nothing more than solidify existing church policy. Accordingly, the trust provision added to the church constitution in 1984 should be given full effect in favor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Furthermore, the language providing for a trust in favor of the general church was added to the constitution in 1984 by a three-fourths vote of all the member churches. Palmetto Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Palmetto) was a member of the general church and the Arkansas Presbytery at that time and did not formally withdraw its membership until 1995, eleven years later. Notwithstanding the fact that Palmetto voted against the 1984 amendment, it continued to contribute money and submit annual reports to the Arkansas Presbytery until at least 1991. Palmetto also continued to send delegates to meetings of the Arkansas Presbytery after 1984. While Palmetto may not have agreed with the 1984 amendment to the constitution, it continued to operate as a member of the general church for several years after the amendment was adopted. Thus, Palmetto acquiesced in the constitutional amendment and should be bound by it. The reasoning of the Indiana Court of Appeals in United Methodist Church v. St. Louis Crossing Independent Methodist Church, 276 N.E.2d 916 (1971), where it considered a similar church property dispute, is particularly apt in this case: A local church, if it desires to remain independent of the influence of a parent church body, must maintain this independence in the important aspects of its operation— e.g., polity, name, finances. It cannot, as here, enter a binding relationship with a parent church which has provisions of implied trust in its constitution, by-laws, rules, and other documents pertaining to the control of property, yet deny the existence of such relationship. ... A local church cannot prosper by the benefits afforded by the parent, participate in the functioning of that body, yet successfully disclaim affiliation when the parent acts to the apparent disadvantage of the local, so as to shield from equitable or contractual obligation the valuable property acquired by the local church either before or during such affiliation. The situation presented here, where the local church continued to operate as a member of the general church for several years after the amendment containing the'trust provision was adopted, is readily distinguishable from cases in other jurisdictions in which recent amendments to the general church’s constitution were deemed inapplicable. In those cases, the local church withdrew from the general church before the amendment to the general church’s constitution was adopted. See Presbytery of Beaver-Butler of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America v. Middlesex Presbyterian Church, 489 A.2d 1317 (Pa. 1985) (where the general church’s constitution was amended to provide for an express trust in favor of the general church only after the local church voted to disaffiliate); York v. First Presbyterian Church of Anna, 474 N.E.2d 716 (Ill. App. Ct. 1984) (where the local church withdrew from the general church before adoption of an amendment to the general church’s constitution providing for an express trust in favor of the general church); Foss v. Dykstra, 342 N.W.2d 220 (S.D. 1983) (where the general church’s Book of Order did not contain a trust provision on the date that the local church voted to withdraw from the general church). Finally, the deeds granting all three parcels of property to the trustees of the local church name the grantees “as Trustees for the Palmetto Cumberland Presbyterian Church.” The Palmetto Cumberland Presbyterian Church, however, no longer exists.3 Therefore, it is impossible for the deeds to control because the local church for which the property is supposedly held in trust has been dissolved. Under these circumstances, section 3.34 of the church’s constitution provides that the property “shall be held, used, and applied for such uses, purposes, and trusts as the presbytery ... may direct[.]” For all these reasons, I must conclude that the church property in dispute is held in trust for the use and benefit of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church pursuant to section 3.32 of the church constitution. The trial court erred when it failed to give effect to the unambiguous language of the Constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, as amended in 1984. BROWN and Hannah, JJ., join in this dissent.   The following sections in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church’s Constitution, as amended in 1984, also pertain to property: 3.30 Of Property This section is declaratory of principles to which the Cumberland Presbyterian Church/Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church and their antecedent church bodies have adhered from the inception of the presbyterian form of church government. * * * 3.31 The provisions of church government as set forth in the Constitution, Rules of Discipline, and Rules of Order prescribing the manner in which decisions are made, reviewed, and corrected within this church are applicable to all matters pertaining to property. * * * 3.33 Whenever property of, or held for, a particular church of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, ceases to be used by the church, as a particular church of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in accordance with this Constitution, such property shall be held, used, applied, transferred, or sold as provided by the presbytery in which that particular church is located. 3.34 Whenever a particular church is formally dissolved by the presbytery, or has become extinct by reason of dispersal of its members, the abandonment of its work, or other cause, such property as it may have shall be held, used, and applied for such uses, purposes, and trusts as the presbytery in which said particular church is located may direct, limit, and appoint, or such property may be sold or disposed of as the presbytery may direct, in conformity with the Constitution of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 3.35 A particular church shall not sell, nor lease its real property used for purposes of worship, nurture or ministry, without the written permission of the presbytery in which the particular church is located, transmitted through the session of the particular church.    The church property dispute in Jones v. Wolf, supra, involved a local church affiliated with a similar hierarchical or connectional church organization, the Presbyterian Church of the United States.    In 1995, the Arkansas Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church suspended the session of the Palmetto Cumberland Presbyterian Church and appointed a commission to rule the church. In 1997, the Arkansas Presbytery adopted the commission’s recommendation that the Palmetto Cumberland Presbyterian Church be dissolved and that its members be attached to another congregation.