There are no statistics available, and if they were asserted their reliability would be suspect, regarding whether lawsuits involving churches are terminated on procedural grounds as often, more often, or less often than lawsuits involving other private or commercial entities. For one thing, the determination as to the precise role each argument played in a disposition is sometimes determined subjectively by the reviewer of the opinion. That disclaimer aside, many lawsuits involving churches do not proceed to a decision on the merits or even to a point sufficiently definitive to be reported here. Also, many state trial courts are not fully integrated into the world wide web such that interlocutory or even final trial court decisions are rarely sufficiently visible to be reported here. That does not mean they are not important cases or decisions. If we cannot see them, however, we cannot report them. However, sometimes the trial court’s procedural rulings are appealed and become visible.

In Eaddy v Capers, Slip Op. (unpublished) (S. Car., App., 2018), the court of appeals affirmed a trial court’s summary judgment that the excommunication of the Plaintiff was outside the jurisdiction of the South Carolinian courts. The trial court held it did not have jurisdiction over church disciplinary matters under the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine. The appellate court noted that Plaintiff’s new arguments on appeal had not been submitted to the trial court and ruled upon, or otherwise preserved for appellate review. The new arguments were that (1) the church leadership had not been properly elected so they did not have authority to conduct church disciplinary proceedings and (2) that the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine as interpreted by South Carolina did not apply to a congregational church like the defendant. But, because the arguments were not preserved for review, they could not be considered.

Preservation of arguments for appellate review is fundamental but trial counsel sometimes believe they have when they have not. That is a cautionary thought for church lawyers, too. Before trial level proceedings close, it may be necessary to review motions and court rulings on them issued many months or even years previously rather than rely on sometimes fallible memory. Making sure court rulings from the bench have been suitably memorialized in writing in the court record can also be a challenge if some of the proceedings were oral argument.

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