Legal News

High court rules breakaway parishes rightfully lost ownership rights

By Richard Binder

In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court ruled that three Southern California parishes who left the U.S. Episcopal Church over its ordination of gay ministers cannot retain ownership of their church buildings and property. The state's high court ruled that the property belongs to the Episcopal Church because the parishes agreed to abide by the mother church's rules, which include specific language about property ownership.
     
St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints Church in Long Beach and St. David's Church in North Hollywood pulled out of the 2.1 million-member national Episcopal Church in 2004 and sought to retain property ownership. Each church held deeds in their names to the property, but the court ruled that Episcopal Church canons made it clear that the property belonged to the individual parishes only as long as they remained part of the bigger church.
     
Since 2003, four dioceses and about 100 individual churches have split and set off bitter religious and legal feuds over church doctrine and division of property.

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Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on January 05, 2009 (boomark / email).