Washington’s Supreme Court yesterday permitted a growing church to sell its current building and construct a new one nearby, despite a requirement in the original conveyance calling for its present location to remain for the “perpetual use” of the church. The majority in Niemann v. Vaughn Community Church held that the original conveyance created a charitable trust. Then they applied the doctrine of equitable deviation to amend the trust terms. Finding “that deviation is permissible when, due to circumstances unanticipated by the settlor, modification of an administrative requirement would advance the trust's purpose,” the Court permitted the Church to sell the building it had outgrown.
Justice Madsen, concurring in part and dissenting in part, argued that the majority’s approach unconstitutionally entangled the court with religious matters of the church. She argued that the property was not conveyed to the church subject to a trust. Instead the church should be seen as holding a fee simple interest that it was free to sell without restriction.
