The announcement came September 9 that Highland Park Presbyterian Church and Grace Presbytery had reached a $7.8 million settlement agreement ending their legal dispute over the denomination’s assertion of trust and the congregation’s assertion of ownership of church property. Almost immediately my phone started ring, “After the Masterson decision why did Highland Park settle?” To…
By A.S. Haley In compliance with the mandate issued by the Texas Supreme Court on March 21st, today (April 24) the 141st District Court in Fort Worth agreed to move forward with a new trial in the property suit brought five years ago by The Episcopal Church against the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. It…
By A.S. Haley Your Curmudgeon has just received reliable word that ECUSA and its attorneys intend to ask the United States Supreme Court to review the (interlocutory!) decision by the Supreme Court of Texas in Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth v. Episcopal Church (USA), in which the Texas Court recently denied ECUSA’s petition for a…
By. A.S. Haley In recent appellate decisions, the courts in both South Carolina and Texas have pointed to a decisive judicial rejection of the Dennis-Canon-based litigation strategy of the powers at 815 Second Avenue in New York, headquarters of what I (still) call ECUSA. If they ever choose to reassess that strategy (as the Rt….
By A.S. Haley Today the Texas Supreme Court denied the losing parties’ petitions for rehearing in the two ECUSA cases pending before it: No. 11-0265, Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, et al. v. The Episcopal Church, et al.; and No. 11-0332, Masterson v. Diocese of Northwest Texas. The Court had delivered its opinions in the two cases last August 30. In the…
The session of Highland Park Presbyterian Church (HPPC) in Dallas, Texas, has come out in support of actions initiated by the church’s Board of Trustees in filing a civil lawsuit seeking not only to protect church property from the presbytery, but also asking the court to declare that the church itself owns and controls all…
Living with litigation has become a way of life for us as members of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. For the past 4 ½ years, we have been under the cloud of a lawsuit brought against us by The Episcopal Church and its local supporters, seeking to deprive us of our buildings and assets….
On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court released two rulings on Episcopal Church property cases declaring that Texas courts must follow neutral principles of law when deciding church property cases. Decisions were handed down in the cases of Robert Masterson, et al. v. Diocese of Northwest Texas, et al.and Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, et al….