Tag: church split

FINDING A BURNING BUSH — CHURCH DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION

When a church split spills out into the street and ends up in court in a jurisdiction that will apply neutral principles to decide the case, each side should be prepared to provide authenticated documentation of their right to own the church property or rule the church.

Church property title can often be established by documents publicly filed or denominational documents owned by many different people.  But, when church property ownership turns on identification of the church leadership, especially on the local church level, church document authentication can become a challenging issue because many local churches are not good record keepers and not all foundational documents are filed in the public record.  Getting a volunteer church officer or a part-time secretary to timely find and authenticate a document can be a challenge.  Finding a corporate seal or encouraging those volunteers to appear before a notary can be a challenge, too.  Local churches often do not have and cannot find corporate minutes for the current year, much less years past.  Finding a burning bush is sometimes less stressful.

In a bankruptcy adversary proceeding, First Korean Christian Church v DW Kim, Memorandum Decision (Bankr. ND CA, 2017), in order to rebut a claim he had been defrocked by the denomination, the former pastor submitted an unsigned and unauthenticated document.  The unauthenticated document purportedly indicated a reversal of the decision of the disciplinary authority of the denomination to strip the pastor of his credentials.  The former pastor also claimed the court did not have jurisdiction to decide the question of his denominational credentialing or whether he could serve as pastor of the local congregation.  The Court rejected the unauthenticated document and based on the authenticated documents granted judgment to the local church and the denomination.

In many cases, if a contested document is not authenticated, it can be rejected as proof by a court without anything further.  Also, a document that is not authenticated will typically not provide the basis for a challenge to an authenticated document.

In a church or denomination, sometimes the proof has to be marshalled as to whether the authenticating or endorsing witness actually has the authority to authenticate or endorse a document because to an outsider the authority may not be readily apparent or identifiable.  This is especially true of denominations that have governing boards that meet infrequently if such a board is the only authority that can authenticate or delegate the authority to do so.  In other words, sometimes a witness must be found that can testify truthfully that the authenticating or endorsing witness actually has authority to do so.  Sometimes, as noted above, it is the burning bush one must find.

ARTFUL PLEADING BE IT NOT ARTFUL DODGING

Some courts, it is true, will put a Plaintiff’s Petition or Complaint under a microscope and search for a phrase that might constitute a claim that can be adjudicated in a civil court.  Artful pleading, accidental or creative, should not be the standard for stating a cause of action, i.e., pleading a claim that can stay in court.  The “substance and effect of plaintiff’s claims” should be the standard.

In Speller v Saint Stephen Lutheran, Slip Op. (Mich. App. 2017) (Per Curiam) (unpublished), the appellate court tracked through each theory of recovery alleged by Plaintiff, apparently as had the trial court, to affirm the trial court’s summary judgment dismissing the Plaintiff’s case.  The Plaintiff alleged that through “wrongful conduct” the defendants were ousting him as pastor of St. Stephen’s and impairing or revoking his credentials in the denomination.  The Plaintiff alleged that the church:

→violated its own constitution and bylaws;

→the constitution and bylaws constituted an employment contract with the pastor that the church directors violated;

→no notice to church members of consideration of termination of the pastor;

→acted without a vote of the membership;

→church directors breached their “fiduciary duty;”

→defamation in internal church letters (which included allegations of “dependence on prescription pain killers” and a lack of candor about it);

→fraud and misrepresentation;

→false light invasion of privacy;

→defamation in letters sent to third parties such as the denomination; and

→intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The Michigan court swept all of these theories of recovery aside because to adjudicate these claims would require “matters of ecclesiastical polity.”

The harder cases are those that do not involve pastors or involve only parachurch organizations.  Also, many courts will not “work through” a multiplicity of theories of recovery, due to tedium, resource limitations, or rules precluding it.  Nevertheless, a court that takes a “substance and effect of plaintiff’s claims” approach seems more likely to recognize the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine’s limitation on the court’s jurisdiction early enough in proceedings to save the defendant, and maybe all parties, substantial legal fees.