Murr v. Maxwell

Decision Date06 July 1950
Docket NumberNo. 6879,6879
Citation232 S.W.2d 219
PartiesMURR et al. v. MAXWELL et al.
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals

Hubert E. Lay, Wm. Duke Hiett, Houston, for appellants.

Bradshaw & Fields, Jean Paul Bradshaw, John F. Low, all of Lebanon, for respondents.

McDOWELL, Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Texas County, rendered on the 7th day of March, 1949, making permanent a temporary injunction, enjoining defendants from encumbering, mortgaging or changing the present status of the physical assets of the Rock Springs Free Will Baptists Church, including real and personal property belonging to the church, and from excluding plaintiffs from membership in said church, and ordering defendants to pay costs of trial.

Plaintiffs' petition for injunction was filed in the Circuit Court of Texas County on the 8th day of March, 1948, and, on that day, the court issued a temporary injunction against defendants as prayed for in the petition.

The cause was tried and judgment rendered on the 7th day of March, 1949, resulting in a judgment for plaintiffs and the making of the temporary injunction permanent. From this judgment defendants appealed to this court.

Plaintiffs' petition states,

1. That on, and prior to, the 2nd day of November, 1947, there existed in Texas County, Missouri, a Free Will Baptist Congregation known as Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Church, consisting of numerous members, who adhered to the creeds, organization and tenets of faith as recognized, taught and practiced by Free Will Baptist Churches.

2. The petition alleges that on the 12th day of September, 1927, C. S. Condon conveyed the church property in question by warranty deed to W. A. Murr, Arthur Murr and J. W. Tate and their successors and assigns, as 'trustees of the Free Will Baptist Church.' The petition states that Arthur Murr is one of the original trustees mentioned in the deed and Sterling Murr and W. I. Robertson are successor trustees, who succeeded W. A. Murr and J. W. Tate, trustees mentioned in the deed.

3. The petition states said church, acting through said trustees in 1927, constructed a house of worship on the lands described in the deed and affiliated itself with the Wright County Quarterly Meeting which, in turn, is a member of the Union Association of Free Will Baptist Churches.

4. The petition states that in October, 1947, and prior thereto, plaintiffs were the duly elected, qualified and acting trustees of the Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Church, were in charge of the church building and other physical property belonging to said church; that a minority of said congregation undertook to retain a pastor unsatisfactory to a majority of the members thereof and the executive committee of the Wright County Quarterly Meetings with which the church was affiliated; that after plaintiff-trustees refused to encumber and dispose of the church properties requested by a former pastor, the defendants signed and delivered to plaintiff-trustees a statement reading;

'We as a standing committee of the Rock Springs Church do by request of said church bring charge against you Bro. Arthur Murr for immoral conduct against the Rock Springs Church by aggrieving said church by circulating or causing to be circulated petition to divide the church and forbidding pastors or anyone to carry on the duties of the church and breaking your covenant with the church.' The petition then states that no notice was given plaintiffs when the charges would be set for trial in the church.

5. The petition then states, on Sunday, November 2nd, 1947, at church services, the defendants, in order to seize the church property and encumber and dispose of it as desired by the ex-pastor of the said congregation, purported to try plaintiff-trustees on the charge set out in paragraph (4) in plaintiffs' petition and declared that by vote the church did exclude them.

6. The petition states the trial and exclusion of plaintiff-trustees was void in that it was contrary to the church doctrine, faith, principles and rules of church government, which the Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Church professed and under which it acquired the property of which plaintiffs are trustees. The petition states the church is an unincorporated religious society with well-defined doctrine and faith and adhering to the rules of church government commonly known as the 'Treatise of the Faith and Practices of the Free Will Baptists,' prescribed for the National Association of Free Will Baptists.

7. The petition then states, first, that the charges did not constitute written notices of specific acts of misconduct on which plaintiffs were tried and did not notify plaintiffs of date of trial in violation of Sec. III, Paragraph 4, Sub-section (c) of said Treatise.

The petition states that the trial was not at a meeting properly called or conducted as required by law in that the defendants failed to introduce testimony in support of the charges against plaintiff-trustees and declined to hear plaintiff-trustees in their own defense in violation of Section III, Paragraph 4, Sub-section (d) of said Treatise.

The petition pleads the trial was void because it was not called to hear any charges against plaintiffs and that the subject was not legally brought up by a motion properly sustained in violation of Section III, Paragraph 4, Sub-section (b) of said Treatise.

The petition states the trial was void because no vote was ever taken upon the guilt or innocence of the plaintiff-trustees of the charges made in violation of Section III, Paragraph 4, Sub-section (d) of said Treatise.

The petition states the trial was void because the meeting was not properly conducted as the congregation did not make an order of expulsion or of guilt or innocence, but purported to exclude plaintiffs without defining the meaning of the charge in violation of Section III, Paragraph 4, Sub-section (e) of Treatise.

8. The petition then pleads that defendants caused false and misleading entries to be made in the minutes of the church records; that by using the word 'excluding' it is not clear if the church meant to expel plaintiffs from membership and, if so, such action would prevent plaintiffs from joining any other Free Will Baptist Church, depriving them of their legal ecclesiastical rights to worship and if 'exclude' means only to hold office in the church, then it placed a cloud upon the title of these plaintiffs as trustees of the real estate and physical assets of said congregation and threatens to interfere with their lawful control of said church property.

9. The petition then states the defendants are illegally attempting to drive plaintiff-trustees from the use of the premises so that a minority of the congregation may encumber and dissipate the physical assets of the church in violation of the deed of conveyance.

10. The petition states that in January, 1948, defendants and other members of the congregation purported to elect the defendants Dave Black, Austin Robertson and Frank Smart as successor trustees to plaintiff-trustees, which action is void because plaintiffs were the duly elected, qualified and acting trustees of the church.

11. The petition states that they, as the duly elected and acting trustees of the church, are vested by said church with the care, custody and control of the church property and they bring this action as trustees for said church and as members in behalf of all present members of the Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Denomination and bring the suit to avoid a multiplicity of suits and have no adequate remedy at law.

In the prayer of the petition, plaintiffs ask (1) that defendants be restrained from encumbering, mortgaging, removing or otherwise changing the present status of the physical assets of the Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Church, including the real and personal property thereof; (2) from interfering with plaintiff-trustees in their care, custody and control of the physical assets of the church and real property, and (3) from enforcing the order excluding or expelling plaintiff-trustees from good standing in said church in so far as that order was based upon the charge tried by the congregation November 2nd, 1947.

Upon this petition the court issued the following temporary injunction, omitting caption:

'Upon reading the petition of plaintiffs, it appearing that the plaintiffs, upon the facts stated in the petition, are entitled to the relief prayed for, it is ordered that a temporary injunction be granted herein enjoining the defendants and each of them (1) from encumbering, mortgaging, removing or otherwise changing the present status of the physical assets of Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Church, including the real and personal property thereof, (2) from interfering with the plaintiff-trustees in their care, custody and control of the physical assets of said church, including all real and personal property belonging to said church, and (3) from making, promulgating, circulating or enforcing any alleged order or finding purporting to exclude, excummunicate or expel the plaintiff-trustees from membership in good standing in said Rock Springs Free Will Baptist Church insofar as the same shall be predicted on quoted complaint appearing in paragraph numbered 4 of the petition herein and the action purported to have been taken by defendants and others against the plaintiff-trustees at a meeting of said congregation in said church on November 2, 1947, until the further order of this court, upon the plaintiffs filing with the clerk a bond in the sum of One Thousand Dollars ($1000.00), condition as required by law, * * *.'

The defendants, in their answer, state that plaintiffs' allegations in paragraphs 1, 2 and 2, pertain to ecclesiastical matters not subject to review by the court.

The answer admits there existed in November, 1947, a Free Will Baptist congregation known as Rock Springs Baptist Church and the members thereof...

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12 cases
  • Struemph v. McAuliffe
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • September 6, 1983
    ...the constitutional mandate that civil courts have no authority to decide controversies over ecclesiastical matters. Murr v. Maxwell, 232 S.W.2d 219 (Mo.App.1950); Longmeyer v. Payne, 205 S.W.2d 263 (Mo.App.1947); Hynes v. Lillis, 183 Mo.App. 190, 170 S.W. 396 (1914). However, it is generall......
  • Williams v. Wilder
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • December 6, 1965
    ...873, 876. See also Schwartz v. Jacobs et al., Mo.App., 352 S.W.2d 389, 392; Boyles v. Roberts, 222 Mo. 613, 121 S.W. 805; Murr v. Maxwell, Mo.App., 232 S.W.2d 219, 234; 45 Am.Jur. 749. When property rights are involved, injunction is the proper remedy for settlement of the controversy. Schw......
  • Erickson v. Gospel Foundation of Cal.
    • United States
    • California Supreme Court
    • October 29, 1954
    ...King v. Smith, 106 Kan. 624, 189 P. 147, 148; Jenkins v. New Shiloh Baptist Church, 189 Md. 512, 56 A.2d 788, 791-793; Murr v. Maxwell, Mo.App., 232 S.W.2d 219, 232-237; Leeds v. Harrison, 9 N.J. 202, 87 A.2d 713, 718-719; 20 A.L.R.2d 421, 451 et The Foundation is a religious organization a......
  • Henson v. Payne
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • November 20, 1956
    ...is entitled, and not to interfere with legitimate and proper action on part of those against whom it is directed. Murr v. Maxwell, Mo.App., 232 S.W.2d 219. An injunction is not a writ of right but an appeal to the conscience of chancery and to the chancellor's sound discretion. Murr v. Maxw......
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