Heartland loses second battle in Colonial property dispute
By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman, February 7, 2012
A Missouri presbytery lost its second attempt to seize the property of a departed church Thursday after a Kansas court ruled in favor of a former Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in a property battle involving land in two states.
On Feb. 2, District Court Judge Thomas Sutherland ruled that Heartland Presbytery has no stake in a $10.5 million tract of land in Johnson County, Kan. owned by Colonial Presbyterian Church.
In July 2011, a Missouri circuit court ruled in favor of Colonial in a decision that allowed the 1,700-member congregation to keep its property following the church’s 2010 departure from Heartland.
The Missouri court ruled that the church held clear title to both its Missouri and Kansas campuses and that no trust agreement existed between Colonial and Heartland.
Located near Kansas City, Colonial left the PCUSA following an overwhelming 927-27 vote in August 2010. Citing theological differences with the denomination, the congregation also approved a move to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).
Efforts to seek an agreeable departure agreement with Heartland led to a protracted battle that included restraining orders from both denominational and secular judicial bodies, formal complaints by other Heartland churches and a flurry of letters.
One of Heartland’s letters told Colonial it had no right to leave the denomination. Ultimately, Colonial filed a lawsuit against the presbytery and Heartland filed counterclaims against Colonial.
In less than a month after the Missouri ruling, Heartland filed suit in Kansas claiming the congregation’s Quivira campus in Overland Park belongs to the presbytery and the PCUSA.
In a 17-page decision, Sutherland disagreed, ruling that “the same issues before this court were properly before the Missouri court, which found that no [property] trust existed” and that Heartland’s claim lacked any merit.
Heartland argued that it possessed a title claim to the Kansas property despite the Missouri court ruling because the court there used Missouri, rather than Kansas law. The presbytery also stated that Missouri law should have no jurisdiction over the Kansas property
Sutherland said that, since both parties agreed to be under Missouri law for the purpose of the original property claim and since Heartland relied on Missouri trust law in its claim, the state’s law would apply.
“[Heartland’s property] title claim directly relies on the issue of whether a trust exists,” Sutherland stated.
“[Heartland] chose to affirmatively pursue its breach of trust counterclaims before the Missouri court and argued to the Missouri court that Kansas law should apply. However, the Missouri court ruled that Missouri law should apply and that a trust did not exist,” he added.
Sutherland then went on to rule that Heartland’s title claim had no merit based on the Missouri court’s ruling on the trust issue.
“Colonial is grateful to learn of this favorable outcome in the Kansas case,” Colonial Senior Pastor Jim West said in a statement released Monday.
“The question surrounding our property being held in trust for the PCUSA was thoroughly dealt with in the Missouri court’s ruling for Colonial in June 2011, so it’s good to know we won’t have to go through the whole process again in Kansas. We’re hopeful that the Kansas ruling represents a light at the end of this long, expensive, and unfortunate tunnel.”
However, Heartland has appealed the earlier Missouri court decision and has spent $231,726 in legal fees between 2007 and 2011, according to a presbytery report.
The ruling represents Heartland’s second property-dispute loss in 2012, after the Court of Appeals of Missouri, Western District, ruled that Gashland Presbyterian Church is not bound by the PCUSA’s constitutional property-trust clause and that it holds clear title to its property.
Colonial was Heartland’s second largest congregation, according to a 2009 study.