Presbytery readies commission, funding in fight over property, which moves to chancery court
By Patrick Jean, April 30, 2007
St. Andrew Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is about to authorize an administrative commission to direct the legal counsel of its defense against a member church’s property ownership lawsuit.
The seven-member commission, whose appointment is scheduled for approval at the presbytery’s May 1 stated meeting, also would be granted “any other such responsibilities as the presbytery might assign at a future time.”
Also at the May 1 meeting, the presbytery is scheduled to approve using up to $100,000 from a reserve fund to pay legal fees in its defense against the litigation brought by First Presbyterian Church in Corinth, Miss.
The presbytery recently had the lawsuit moved out of civil court for the second time. The case now will be heard – and decided – by a judge in Alcorn County Chancery Court.
All of these actions come nearly three months after First Presbyterian Church filed suit against the presbytery, seeking a declaratory judgment that it owns its property without interference by the presbytery or the PCUSA.
Commission, funds on docket
The docket for St. Andrew Presbytery’s stated meeting May 1 includes a lawsuit-related item from the committee on ministry that requires presbytery approval. The item would appoint the administrative commission “in accordance with G-9.0503a(4) of the Book of Order ‘to visit particular churches, governing bodies or other organizations of the church reported to be affected with disorder, and to inquire and settle the difficulties therein.’ ”
The commission would be “granted the authority to direct the presbytery’s legal counsel in any proceedings regarding First Presbyterian Church of Corinth, Miss., and any other such responsibilities as the presbytery might assign at a future time.”
“The recommendation would not give the commission authority to remove the pastor or assume original jurisdiction at this time,” said the Rev. Dr. Gregory A. Goodwiller, executive presbyter and stated clerk of St. Andrew Presbytery. “Of course, it is only a recommendation, and we have no ‘control’ over what the governing body will do with it.”
The commission’s seven members are identified as three ministers: Frank Beck; Bill Connolly, moderator; and Annette Ragsdale; and four elders: Buford Givens of Senatobia Presbyterian Church in Senatobia, Miss.; Sue Hatcher of First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Miss.; Aubrey Patterson of First Presbyterian Church in Tupelo, Miss.; and Iris Stacker of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Greenville, Miss.
The presbytery meeting docket also includes a lawsuit-related item from the administration and stewardship committee that requires presbytery approval. The item would authorize “that up to $100,000 of the St. Stephen Church reserve fund be utilized to pay the presbytery’s legal fees related to property issues (with council’s consent, the expenditures to date related to these legal fees have already been posted to the St. Stephen Church fund, in anticipation of the presbytery’s approval).”
Goodwiller said the fund “is the proceeds from the sale of the St. Stephen Presbyterian Church property, which the Presbytery of St. Andrew sold a couple of years ago after it dissolved that congregation in Tupelo at the congregation’s request. None of the proceeds have been used to date.”
The funds in the St. Stephen Church reserve fund, he said, “belong entirely to the presbytery and the presbytery may expend them at its discretion. I don’t think a presbytery voting on what funds it will ‘tap’ to adequately defend itself against a lawsuit filed against it should be considered unusual in any way.”
A year-to-date Consolidated Fund Activity Report shows the fund had a balance of $271,666.92 before $13,689.21 was disbursed. The fund’s balance is $257,977.71 going into the presbytery meeting, according to the report.
Case goes to chancery court
On March 13, presbytery attorney J. Hale Freeland of Oxford, Miss., filed a motion, as well as a memo supporting the motion, to have the case moved from Alcorn County Circuit Court to the county’s chancery court.
The presbytery sought the transfer, Freeland said, because of the nature of the lawsuit. Chancery courts handle matters involving trusts and real property, he said, while circuit courts hear contractual, civil and criminal cases.
J. Scott Newton, one of the attorneys on the Jackson legal team representing the church, filed a response to the transfer request April 6. He argued that the motion should be denied “because some of Corinth’s claims are legal in nature and, thus, within this court’s general jurisdiction.”
“The only grants of jurisdiction to chancery courts relevant to this case are: (1) jurisdiction over suits to try title, cancel deeds or clouds upon title, and to decree and to displace possession; and (2) all matters in equity,” the response states. “Therefore, the issue before this court is whether any of Corinth’s claims are outside the narrow scope of these two limited grants of jurisdiction to the chancery court and, thus, within the circuit court’s jurisdiction.”
Circuit Court Judge Thomas J. Gardner III agreed with Freeland. He ordered the lawsuit to chancery court April 17, just six days before he was to consider a number of motions in the case – including preliminary injunctions that each side is seeking against the other.
It’s the second time the presbytery had the case moved days before a preliminary injunction hearing. On Feb. 13, Freeland had the case moved to U.S. District Court when he filed a notice of removal in the federal court’s Northern District of Mississippi, Eastern Division. But the case was only at the federal level for a week; on Feb. 20, U.S. District Court Judge Michael P. Mills remanded the case to Alcorn County Circuit Court.
Mills also rebuked the presbytery for having the case removed to federal court. He questioned whether the timing of the notice of removal “was made in good faith,” as it came two days ahead of a circuit court hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction.
Unlike the federal court situation, chancery court will be the final stop for the case, attorneys for both the church and the presbytery said. And unlike circuit court, where a jury renders a verdict, the judge will decide the case in chancery court.
Many motions to consider
A chancery court judge has not yet been assigned to the lawsuit. When one is assigned, he or she will have to consider a flurry of motions filed since the case was remanded to circuit court:
- Freeland on March 1 filed an “Answer, Defenses and Counterclaim” to the church’s lawsuit. The response seeks “declaratory and injunctive relief” to:
1. Find “the PCUSA is a hierarchical, connectional church and that FPC Corinth is subject to the PCUSA Constitution.”
2. State that “the PCUSA Constitution has applicable provisions to this property dispute and deference must be given to the PCUSA’s governance and dispute resolution procedures.”
3. Declare either (a) “the case must be dismissed or indefinitely held in abeyance pending review and decision on the dispute through the appropriate PCUSA governance procedures,” or (b) “the subject property is held in trust for the use and benefit of the presbytery pursuant to applicable federal and state case law precedent.”
4. Hold that “FPC Corinth does not have the power or authority to take, hold or convey the real and personal property identified in the complaint without approval from the presbytery, and that no such approval action has occurred.”
5. “Enjoin FPC Corinth from further encumbering, selling, divesting or otherwise transferring any property, real or personal, until such time as the presbytery makes a determination of the issues.”
- On April 6, Newton filed a response to the counterclaim. The response seeks a dismissal of the counterclaim on the grounds that:
1. Clauses in the PCUSA Constitution that purport to apply to the property dispute are not legally enforceable. “Corinth is only bound by the provisions of the PCUSA Constitution to the extent, and for as long as, it agrees to be bound by them,” the response states. “Corinth never executed any document or otherwise agreed to be legally bound” by the constitution.
2. The court should not “consider this property dispute a matter of church polity. … The deeds to Corinth’s property do not, in any way, acknowledge that the property is held in trust for the presbytery or the PCUSA.”
3. The court should not “give any deference to the PCUSA Constitution.” The constitution does not “confer upon the presbytery and/or the PCUSA a legal interest in Corinth’s property.”
- On March 13, Freeland filed a response and cross-motion to the church’s motion to extend a temporary restraining order and issue a preliminary injunction. The response asks the court to deny the church’s motion and grant the presbytery a preliminary junction that would prevent First Presbyterian Church from “further encumbering, selling, divesting or otherwise transferring any property, real or personal,” until the court either “adjudges a final decision in this case” or “defers this case to the presbytery to make a determination of the issues.”
- Newton filed a reply April 6 in support of First Presbyterian Church’s motion for a preliminary injunction and response to the presbytery’s cross-motion for its own preliminary injunction. The reply argues that the church “still needs immediate injunctive relief to prevent the Presbytery of St. Andrew from interfering with Corinth’s property and daily operations.”
The reply warns that the presbytery’s administrative commission will have “authority to attempt to take disciplinary action against Corinth’s pastor … and possibly with authority to try to replace Corinth’s session.” It argues that the church still faces “imminent irreparable harm” without an injunction and seeks a temporary restraining order.
- On April 6, Newton filed a motion for a summary judgment. The church is seeking an order with the judgment that declares:
1. “Corinth owns all of its property free from any interests asserted by the presbytery and/or the PCUSA.
2. “The presbytery has no authority to determine which members of Corinth constitute the true church.”
Dispute entering 10th month
The dispute involving the church, the presbytery and the PCUSA originated July 9, 2006. That’s when First Presbyterian’s session told the congregation that the church “cannot stay in the PCUSA as it stands now.” Twenty-two days later, the session called for a six-month “season of prayer and discernment” to determine whether it would remain in the PCUSA.
On Nov. 28, the session recommended to the congregation that “we go in the direction of leaving the PCUSA in 12 to 18 months or less and moving to a new place in another Presbyterian and Reformed denomination.” The session shared that resolution Jan. 23, 2007, with St. Andrew Presbytery’s committee on ministry.
On Jan. 24, the committee on ministry sent a letter to the Rev. Dr. Don Elliott, First Presbyterian Church’s pastor of 21 years. The letter informed Elliott of the committee’s pending report at the presbytery’s stated meeting Feb. 6 that it “has directed the executive presbyter/stated clerk to begin the necessary legal proceedings to determine the presbytery’s legal rights, and specifically to seek a declaratory judgment as to whether the courts in the state of Mississippi will recognize and uphold our constitution’s trust clause.” The letter also warned Elliott that “actively advocating for a congregation’s withdrawal from the PCUSA is not an approved work.”
First Presbyterian filed suit Feb. 5 against the presbytery, seeking a declaratory judgment that it owns its property without interference by the presbytery or the PCUSA. Judge Gardner issued a temporary restraining order the same day.
The lawsuit was filed to prevent the presbytery from taking action at its Feb. 6 meeting against the 475-member congregation, said Walker W. “Bill” Jones III, one of the Jackson attorneys representing First Presbyterian.
Patrick Jean is a staff writer for The Layman and The Layman Online. He can be reached at pjean@layman.org.