Court Dismisses Church's Suit Over Disaffiliation Request

In North United Methodist Church v. New York Annual Conference, (CT Super. Ct., Aug 14, 2024), a Connecticut trial court dismissed a local church's petition for a declaratory judgment. The local church sought a finding that it submitted its request to disaffiliate from the parent church in "sufficient time" to complete disaffiliation under the Book of Discipline. The court concluded that it would require the court to resolve a question of church policy and administration to resolve this issue. However, the court retained jurisdiction over the church's request for a declaratory judgment as to property rights, its quiet tile claim and its quantum meruit and unjust enrichment claims.

Alabama Supreme Court: Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine Does Not Apply to Church Property Ownership Dispute

In Ex parte The Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, Inc., (AL Sup. Ct., April 12, 2024), the Alabama Supreme Court held that the parent bodies of the Methodist Church in Alabama had not shown that an ownership dispute between them and a local church in Dothan, Alabama should be dismissed under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine. The Methodist Church's Book of Discipline required church deeds to contain a clause providing the property was held in trust for the parent church. The deed to the Dothan church did not contain such a clause. Four of the Court's 9 Justices recused themselves in the case, and two lower appellate court judges were appointed to sit with the remaining 5 regular Justices to hear the case.  In the opinion for the court written by Justice Cook and concurred in by three others, the Court said in part:

First, the AWFC and the GCFA's claim that this is a church dispute over ecclesiastical, rather than property, issues is premised on the erroneous assertion that "Harvest wants the [trial] court to create a new disaffiliation process just for Harvest contrary to church law." ...

Harvest's complaint does not seek judicial review of the disaffiliation procedure set forth in the Book of Discipline or otherwise ask the trial court to judicially declare that Harvest's vote to sever its affiliation with the UMC was consistent with the Book of Discipline's requirements....

Instead, the complaint asks that the trial court (1) to recognize that Harvest "alone is the absolute, full, exclusive, fee simple owner of all real or personal property that is owned by [Harvest], held for [Harvest], or titled in its name," (2) to declare that the UMC and the AWFC do not have "any trust, equitable, or beneficial interest in any of the real or personal property so owned by [Harvest],"....

Accordingly, Harvest's claim, on the face of the complaint, pertains solely to the ownership and control of the local church property -- an issue that civil courts generally can resolve by applying "neutral principles of law." 

Chief Justice Parker filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the result, saying in part:

While I believe that the main opinion accurately applies our precedents on the limited issue of church-property disputes, I believe that it goes too far in announcing a grand unifying theory applicable to all church-dispute cases that will unfortunately result in a loss of religious liberty. 

Justice Sellers filed an opinion concurring in the result, saying in part:

[I]n my opinion, once Harvest used the civil legal system to file its deed and organizational documents, it consented to have secular law applied to its filings and, thus, opened the door to have any property dispute resolved pursuant to neutral principles of law.

Special Justice Edwards concurred in the result. 

185 Methodist Churches in Georgia Sue Parent Body Seeking Disaffiliation

 At the end of last month, 185 Methodist congregations in Georgia filed suit in a Georgia state trial court against their parent body and its officials.  The congregations are attempting to disaffiliate from the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church pursuant to a provision (❡2553) added to the Church's Book of Discipline in 2019.  The provision, which applies to disaffiliations completed by the end of 2023, allows disaffiliating congregations to keep their real and personal property.  The complaint (full text) in Carrollton First United Methodist Church, Inc. v. Trustees of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, Inc., (GA Superior Ct., filed 3/30/2023), alleges in part that: 

Defendants have conspired to "run out the clock" on Plaintiffs ability to utilize ❡2553 by a combination of ultra vires actions, fraudulent misrepresentations, and promises which they have failed to keep so that, unless this court intervenes, Plaintiffs cannot and indeed will not be allowed to fulfill the legislated requirements of ❡2553 in time to meet the sunset date of 12/31/23.

The complaint also alleges that the parent body is no longer allowing disaffiliating churches a credit for their share of a $23 million pension plan reserve fund.

In introductory paragraphs, the complaint contends:

This case can be resolved in accordance with secular Georgia law ... without interfering with the separation of church and state.... Defendants cannot be heard to contest this point, as Defendants have availed themselves of the same principles recently in a substantially similar context in this very court....

UM News, reporting on the lawsuit, says in part:

The lawsuit ... involves more than a quarter of the North Georgia Conference’s nearly 700 congregations. 

It’s also the most congregations that have banded together in a single lawsuit since the denomination began undergoing a slow-motion separation after decades of intensifying debate over LGBTQ inclusion.

North Carolina Methodist Churches Sue to Disaffiliate from Parent Body

Suit was filed last month in a North Carolina state trial court by 38 United Methodist Churches in North Carolina which are seeking to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church and retain their buildings and property.  The complaint (full text) in Mount Carmel United Methodist Church v. Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, (NC Super. Ct., filed 11/10/2022), alleges in part:

Plaintiff Churches wish to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church ("UMC") to pursue their deeply held religious beliefs. Defendants want to force Plaintiff Churches to stay affiliated with the UMC, and violate those beliefs by holding their church buildings and property hostage. Defendants claim Plaintiffs' Churches property is encumbered by an irrevocable trust for the benefit of the UMC and the only way for Plaintiff Churches to disaffiliate without surrendering the buildings and property that are central to their congregations is by the permission of the UMC and payment of a financial ransom.

Plaintiffs ask the court to declare that the UMC trust is terminated or is revocable and to quiet title to the Churches properties. Religion News Service reports on the lawsuit, saying in part:

Legal action — or the threat of legal action — represents a new strategy on behalf of churches that want to leave the 6.4 million-member United Methodist Church. The denomination is undergoing a wholesale splinter after decades of rancorous debate over the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ members.

The denomination allows churches to leave through the end of 2023. The exit plan allows them to take their properties with them after paying two years of apportionments and pension liabilities.

Disaffiliated Congregation Not Entitled To Church Property

In Hebron Community Methodist Church v. Wisconsin Conference Board of Trustees of the United Methodist Church, Inc., (WD WI, July 25, 2022), a Wisconsin federal district court rejected a claim by a local congregation that it retained title to the church's real property after it disaffiliated from its parent organization.  The local congregation asked for a declaration that a Wisconsin statute specifically governing property of disaffiliated Methodist congregations is unconstitutional.  The statute provides:

Whenever any local Methodist church or society shall become defunct or be dissolved the rights, privileges and title to the property thereof, both real and personal, shall vest in the annual conference and be administered according to the rules and discipline of said church.

The court however held that it need not reach the constitutional question, because the local congregation "has not pleaded facts sufficient to show that any neutral principle of law would allow Hebron to retain its property after disaffiliation." Wisconsin law directs courts to look to the Church's governing documents. The congregation had adopted the Book of Discipline as its governing document.  The Book of Discipline provides in part:

All properties of United Methodist local churches and other United Methodist agencies and institutions are held, in trust, for the benefit of the entire denomination....

Courthouse News Service reports on the decision.

Mississippi Supreme Court Rejects Claims By Pastor's Former Wife Against His Church On Unusual Facts

In Woodard v. Miller, (MS Sup. Ct., Aug. 12, 2021), the Mississippi Supreme Court applied the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine in an unusual context.  Plaintiff Kim Miller married Andrew Johnson when he was a seminary student studying to be a United Methodist Church minister. Church officials encouraged Miller to give up her higher education plans to serve as a minister's wife, and told her that the church would provide for her needs. After more than 20 years of marriage, Miller filed for divorce. She took this step after Johnson confessed to her that he was gay, had contracted HIV from an extramarital affair, and had infected Miller.

Miller sued her ex-husband, the United Methodist Church Conference and a fellow-pastor asserting a variety of claims. She asserted that "had the conference and the fellow minister followed United Methodist policy and procedure, they would have discovered Johnson’s behavior and remedied it or warned Miller before she contracted HIV."

The court dismissed plaintiff's claims against the church, saying in part:

[U]nder the First Amendment, for Miller’s claim to proceed against MUMC, the claimed assumed duty cannot be religious or ecclesiastical in nature.... And we are hard-pressed to see how Miller’s claim would hold up if it were against a non-religious employer. Though Miller personally interpreted MUMC’s promise to provide for her and her family if she gave up her own career goals as both an assurance of sufficient financial remuneration and a guarantee against her husband committing adultery, such an interpretation would be considered wholly unreasonable if the promise was being made by, say, a law firm, a hospital, or a technology company. In other words, Miller interpreted the assurances of MUMC ministers as including guaranteeing the success of her marriage and family life precisely because her fiancé was going into church ministry. Thus, her claim fails because the religious nature of his employer cannot be the basis for recognizing a legal duty....

The court dismissed Miller's claim against the fellow-pastor because: "a fiduciary duty cannot arise merely from a minister-church member relationship."

Finally, the court, over the dissent of two judges allowed plaintiff to move ahead on her claims against her former husband, rejecting his defense that the claims against him were released as part of the divorce settlement. The majority held that Johnson had waived this defense.

"Neutral Principles" Approach Controls Issue of Joining Parent Church

In Korean New Life Methodist Church v. Korean Methodist Church of the Americas,(CO App., Feb. 6, 2020), a Colorado state appellate court held that the neutral principles of law approach should be used in deciding a dispute over whether a local church agreed to be under the authority of a national denomination.  It agreed that the trial court, using that approach, correctly determined that the local church never gave up control to submit to the authority of the parent church body, saying in part:

[W]e conclude that the question of submission does not involve a “religious dispute” covering ecclesiastical matters or involving church doctrine.... Rather, it involves an inquiry into the local church’s organizational intent as evidenced by church documents, testimony, and conduct.

Methodist Parent Body Sues SMU Over Attempted Split From Church Control

Suit was filed last week in a Texas state trial court by the regional parent body of the Methodist Church against Southern Methodist University alleging that SMU last month filed invalid amendments to its Articles of Incorporation purporting to eliminate the parent body's control over SMU's board of trustees, over amendments to SMU's Articles of Incorporation, and over sale of SMU's property.  The complaint (full text) in South Central Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church v. Southern Methodist University, (TX Dist. Ct., filed 12/4/2019), alleges:

The November 2019 Articles make no mention of SCJC, much less any mention of the rights permanently guaranteed to SCJC by SMU’s governing documents. Instead, by deleting any mention of SCJC and its rights, the November 2019 Articles attempt to terminate all of SCJC’s rights and relationship with SMU without approval or authorization of SCJC for the amendment in Violation of SMU’s governing documents and the Trustees’ fiduciary duties to SCJC.

RNS, reporting on the lawsuit, says that the moves by SMU are "part of the latest fallout over the global denomination's decision earlier this year to strengthen language in its rulebook barring LGBTQ members from marriage and ordination."

Break-Away Moves By Methodist Congregation Are Invalid

In Laumalie Ma'oni'oni Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga v. Ma'afu, (UT App, March 21, 2019), a Utah state appellate court held that a mail-in vote to change the articles of incorporation of the Tongan United Methodist Church (TUMC) was invalid.  The amendments purported to break the congregation away from the parent United Methodist Church (UMC). The mail vote did not comply with the governance requirement of UMC's Book of Discipline which was incorporated by reference into TUMC's articles of incorporation.  Rejecting constitutional challenges, the court said in part:

[T]he district court’s interpretation and application of the Discipline was constitutionally sound. In resolving the dispute, the court looked to the corporation’s governing documents, “without inquiring into matters of church doctrine.” The Discipline requires any meeting of the Charge Conference or the Church Conference to be presided over and called by the district superintendent. The Discipline does not authorize mail-in voting....

Free Wesleyan argues that these matters relate to “faith and doctrine.” We disagree. Whether a corporate meeting must be called and presided over by a certain person and whether voting members must be present at a meeting are not matters of religious doctrine or faith.

Suit Against Former Pastor For Financial Misdeeds Dismissed On Church Autonomy Grounds

In Trustees of the Alpine Methodist Episcopal Church v. New Jersey United Methodist Church, (NJ Super., Sept. 22, 2015), a New Jersey trial court dismissed on church autonomy and hierarchical deference grounds a suit by the trustees of a Methodist congregation  against its former pastor for misuse of church funds. The court said in part:

Here, Plaintiff alleges that Rev. Kim misused or misappropriated church funds and property in a variety of ways, including forging checks, paying his personal utility bills with Church funds, and utilizing Tipton [the financial secretary] as a means to convert church donations.... 

Before the Court can determine whether Rev. Kim is liable to Plaintiff under any claim, it would first have to determine whether Rev. Kim violated the rules set forth in The Book of Discipline and whether the [United Methodist Church's] policy and polity permitted Rev. Kim to engage in certain financial and managerial practices....

Moreover, Plaintiff’s sought relief through the UMC’s process, wherein Plaintiff’s representatives at the Church met with Superintendent Plumstead.... Plumstead met with the Church’s Staff Parish Relations Committee and advised the Committee that they had several options. The Committee could “move on”, i.e., accepting that grievances were duly lodged, or pursue internal church or legal action by filing a formal complaint with the bishop’s office... The Committee did not take any further internal church or legal action. In response, Plaintiff, by and through new representatives, did not accept this decision and decided to separate from the UMC.... Plaintiff believes that the hierarchical bodies of the UMC did not reach a just resolution of their claims and therefore, seeks relief in a secular court. Plaintiff’s recent disenchantment with the UMC does not warrant secular court review in contravention of the longstanding jurisprudence of this state’s Appellate Division, its sister states, and the Supreme Court of the United States

Backgrounder On Lawsuit By NJ Methodist Congregation Against United Methodist Church

The Record today carries a long article about a lawsuit filed this summer by Alpine Community Church (in Alpine, New Jersey) against the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church over ownership of church property. Here are some excerpts from the article:

Here in one of America’s priciest ZIP codes, a bitter dispute is bubbling at a beloved local landmark over religion and money, property and race, spilling from its pews and into the courts.

At its heart is ownership of the Alpine Community Church, a sanctuary with a storied history, millions of dollars in assets, and a tiny congregation. Its trustees have voted to cut ties with the United Methodist Church and say they want to preserve it as a church for all who want to worship there..... 

Court papers attest to the turmoil, with trustees alleging church funds were used to fuel the “luxurious lifestyle” of a former pastor appointed by the conference, causing some members to stop attending services and making donations.....

The former pastor at the center of the controversy is the Rev. Hae-Jong Kim, who roughly six years ago, in his retirement, was assigned to serve the Alpine church part time. Kim was the first Korean-American bishop in the UMC but resigned that post nearly a decade ago as part of the resolution of an unrelated complaint filed against him.

The lawsuit accuses Kim of misusing church funds; trustees allege that when evidence of forged checks, missing donations and more was presented to the conference, nothing was done....

Delays In Sale of Historic Church Support Free Exercise, But Not RLUIPA, Claim

In California-Nevada Annual Conference of the Methodist Church v. City and County of San Francisco, (ND CA, Nov. 24, 2014), a California federal district court resolved two rather interesting issues defining the scope of religious liberty protection. The suit grows out of ten-years of legal delays-- including attempted landmarking-- imposed by San Francisco on the sale of an historic Methodist Church to condominium developers who planned to demolish the church building.The court rejected the Methodist Conference's RLUIPA claims, holding that the sale of the property to commercial developers is not a "religious exercise" under RLUIPA:

The fact that the proceeds from the sale were to be used to fund the Conference’s religious efforts does not transform the sale transaction itself into "religious exercise."

However the court refused to dismiss the Conference's 1st Amendment free exercise claim:

Unlike the Conference’s RLUIPA claim, which specifically hinged on the denial of the demolition permit and resultant inability to recoup profits on the land sale, the Conference’s First Amendment claim is based upon a broader notion of unequal treatment – generally, that the City embroiled the Conference in bureaucratic proceedings, much of which were unnecessary, in an effort to prevent the Conference engaging in religious exercise.

Dispute Over Suspension of Methodist Bishop Dismissed As Ecclesiastical Dispute

In Clark v. Moore, (SC Sup. Ct., Aug. 20 2014), the South Carolina Supreme Court in an unpublished (i.e. non-precedential) decision dismissed a suit growing out of a dispute between the Bishop of the Reformed Methodist Union Episcopal Church (RMUE) and the Church's General Officers.  The General Officers suspended Moore as bishop after finding that he had stolen Church funds.  Bishop Moore disputed their authority, removed the General Officers and cancelled the election for bishop that had been scheduled.  The Court dismissed the suit because it is "an ongoing ecclesiastical dispute which cannot be resolved by neutral principles of law."  Chief Justice Tole filed a concurring opinion urging that the case be remanded to the lower court for further factual findings on which party is the highest decision-making body of the RMUE so that the Court could then defer to its decision.