Contempt Finding After Settlement Of Church Dispute Dismissed

In Foster v. Collins, (TN Ct. App., Dec. 27, 2005), a Tennessee appellate court dismissed a case involving a dispute between church members and church leadership over expenditure of church funds and renewal of the employment contract of the church's pastor, Dr. Frank Thomas. Originally a group of church members sued claiming that members should vote on whether or not to retain Thomas. Church leadership agreed to hold an election under court-ordered election guidelines. Members voted to renew, and plaintiffs then filed a petition to hold the leadership in contempt for violating the election guidelines. The parties negotiated a settlement of this claim, but then members filed another series of contempt petitions, alleging violation of that settlement agreement. The trial court found defendants in contempt. However, the Court of Appeals ordered the case dismissed, finding a lack of jurisdiction from the beginning because selection and termination of clergy are ecclesiastical matters in which courts cannot, under the First Amendment, interfere. Since the order on which the Chancery Court based its finding of contempt was void, the court could not find disobedience of that order constituted contempt.