Babcock Memorial Presbyterian Church v. Presbytery of Baltimore of United Presbyterian Church in U.S.

• Decision Date: 17 August 1983
• Docket Number: No. 102,102
• Parties: BABCOCK MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH et al. and Merritt Boulevard Presbyterian Church of Dundalk, Inc. v. The PRESBYTERY OF BALTIMORE OF the UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN the UNITED STATES of America et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 573

296 Md. 573

464 A.2d 1008

BABCOCK MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH et al. and Merritt Boulevard Presbyterian Church of Dundalk, Inc. v. The PRESBYTERY OF BALTIMORE OF the UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN the UNITED STATES of America et al.

No. 102.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Aug. 17, 1983.

W.J. Williamson, Greenville, Ala., (Mark E. Werner, II and David S. Pearl on the brief, Baltimore), for appellants.

Kathleen M. Brown, Baltimore, amici curiae brief of the Presbyterian Church in America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Dorothy M. Beaman and Richard W. Kiefer, Baltimore, for appellees.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and SMITH, ELDRIDGE, COLE, DAVIDSON, RODOWSKY and COUCH, JJ.

SMITH, Judge.

In this case involving a dispute as to ownership and control of church property we shall affirm the decision of the Court of Special Appeals in Presbytery v. Babcock Mem. Pres. Ch., 52 Md.App. 428, 449 A.2d 1190 (1982).

Judge Thompson stated for the Court of Special Appeals:

"Certain disputes, ecclesiastical in nature, arose between Babcock [Memorial Presbyterian Church] and the higher judicatories of [The] United [Presbyterian Church in the United States of America], and at an August 5, 1980 meeting, the Session [of Babcock] voted to recommend to the congregation that appropriate actions be taken to sever Babcock's relationship with [the] Presbytery [of Baltimore] and United. On September 18, 1980, the Presbytery, at its regular monthly meeting, established an Administrative Commission to investigate the alleged disorders at Babcock and to recommend to the Presbytery whether Babcock's Session should be dissolved and replaced with the Administrative Commission as provided in The Book of Order.3 Meetings were held between the Commission and leadership and congregation of Babcock without resolution of the problem. The Session, on March 14, 1981, made an 'absolute and irrevocable gift' of the subject property to Merritt.4 On March 16, 1981, after the deed of the real property had been recorded in the Land Records of Baltimore County, a letter advising of the gift transfers was hand delivered to Presbytery. On March 23, 1981, at a meeting called by the Session and Board of Trustees of Babcock, the membership voted by a majority of those present (228-6) to withdraw from United and its constituent judicatories. The membership further ratified and adopted as their action, the acts of the Session and the Board of Trustees in conveying the property as gifts to Merritt.

"In late March 1981, the Administrative Commission assumed possession of the Babcock property and required Babcock congregants to leave the premises. On several occasions thereafter, members of Merritt attempted to gain access to the church for purposes of a congregational meeting, but were denied by the appellants. Merritt thereafter filed suit in ejectment and trespass to regain possession of the property and the Presbytery and members of the Commission brought suit to have the deeds to Merritt set aside."

Merritt Boulevard Presbyterian Church of Dundalk, Inc., filed a suit in ejectment against the Presbytery of Baltimore of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Administrative Commission designated by it relative to Babcock. The suit sought to gain possession of real property at 8240 Loch Raven Boulevard in Baltimore County, said to have been conveyed to Merritt by the Session and the Board of Trustees of Babcock. The Presbytery and its Administrative Commission then filed a suit in equity against Babcock, its former pastor, its former associate pastor, a number of persons who were members of the deposed Session of Babcock, the various individual members of the Board of Trustees of Babcock, Merritt, and the members of the Session of Merritt. It sought an interlocutory and permanent injunction against interference with the Administrative Commission in the exercise of its authority over the affairs of Babcock, that Merritt and the members of its Session be ordered to transfer and convey to Babcock the real and personal property received by it from Babcock, an accounting, and other relief. Former members of Babcock filed a counterclaim for release of its personal property. The cases were submitted to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County on an agreed statement of facts.

We are further informed by the agreed statement of facts:

"Approximately 50 to 75 members of the Babcock congregation who remain members of UNITED met at Faith Presbyterian Church, 5400 Loch Raven Boulevard, until June 21, at which time they resumed UNITED worship services and other related activities in the church building at 8240 Loch Raven Boulevard. Approximately 250 to 300 of those who have withdrawn from UNITED are meeting at the Loch Raven Elementary School. Babcock has not been dissolved by the Presbytery or become extinct by reason of the dispersal of its members, the abandonment of its work or other cause."

The trial court found "that 'United' maintains a congregational polity with respect to the use and ownership of local church property" and that the original Babcock Session and its Board of Trustees were legally entitled to make absolute and irrevocable gifts of that church's real and personal property to Merritt. An appeal followed to the Court of Special Appeals which reversed. We granted a writ of certiorari.

I

The Park Presbyterian Church of Baltimore City was incorporated in 1891. Art. VI of its charter provided that it should "forever remain a Presbyterian Church in accordance with the Standards of the Presbyterian Church of the United States." It began as a mission of Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, a member of the Presbytery of Baltimore, under the leadership of that church's pastor, the Rev. Maltbie D. Babcock. It was originally located at North and Madison Avenues in Baltimore City on a lot purchased by funds provided as a part of Brown Memorial's mission effort. Assistance in the erection of its church building was provided by friends of Dr. Babcock at Brown Memorial and by Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. Virtually from its inception Park was a member of the Presbytery of Baltimore. The Presbytery of Baltimore was part of The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America which later merged with The United Presbyterian Church of North America to form the church now known as The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

Park was incorporated under our general religious corporation law now embodied in Maryland Code (1975) §§ 5-301 to -313, Corporations and Associations Article. ¹ Relative to what was then Code (1957) Art. 23, §§ 256 to 270, upon which those sections are based, Judge Barnes commented for the Court in Md. & Va. Eldership v. Sharpsburg, 249 Md. 650, 657, 241 A.2d 691 (1968) (Eldership I ), vacated, 393 U.S. 528, 89 S.Ct. 850, 21 L.Ed.2d 250, reaff'd, 254 Md. 162, 254 A.2d 162 (1969) (Eldership II ), appeal dismissed, 396 U.S. 367, 90 S.Ct. 499, 24 L.Ed.2d 582 (1970), that the statute "is based upon and largely follows the original legislation on this subject, i.e., the Act of 1802, chapter 111." We know not what the law of the Church was at the time of Park's incorporation but today § 62.04 of United's Book of Order requires each local church to be incorporated unless forbidden by state law.

Despite inferences to the contrary which may be drawn from corporate names of some churches, "[u]nder the Maryland system of incorporating religious societies the trustees and not the congregation constitute the corporation." Phillips v. Insley, 113 Md. 341, 349, 77 A. 850 (1910) citing Bethel Church v. Carmack, 2 Md.Ch. 143 (1849), and Stubbs v. Vestry of St. John's, 96 Md. 267, 275, 53 A. 917 (1902). Phillips was quoted in Gildenhorn v. Columbia R.E. Title, 271 Md. 387, 404, 317 A.2d 836 (1974). Numerous other states follow a similar procedure for church corporations. See C. Zollmann, American Church Law § 106 (1933).

In 1901 the name of Park was changed to Babcock Memorial Presbyterian Church of Baltimore City. That name, after relocation at 8240 Loch Raven Boulevard, was changed to Babcock Memorial Presbyterian Church.

At the time of the move to Loch Raven Boulevard the Presbytery made available to Babcock residual funds of Olivet Presbyterian Church of Canton. A plaque memorializing that fact appears in the narthex of Babcock.

In 1968 Babcock adopted a set of by-laws, Article 1, § 2 of which provides:

"This church is affiliated with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and is under the care of and subject to the jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Baltimore. These By-Laws shall be subordinate to the Constitution of the United Presbyterian Church and nothing contained herein shall be interpreted to the contrary."

The original deed to Babcock for the Loch Raven Boulevard land is to "The Babcock Memorial Presbyterian Church of Baltimore City, a corporation of the State of Maryland ...." Neither in the granting clause nor in the habendum clause is there any restriction of any kind. On May 15, 1980, the Board of Trustees and the Session of Babcock conveyed the land in question, without consideration, to Conduit, Inc., which in turn reconveyed the land in question to the named trustees of Babcock "for the uses and purposes and with the powers and subject to the limitations hereinafter set forth ...." In the habendum clause it is specified that the conveyance to the trustees is "in trust for the following uses and trust purposes and with the powers and subject to the limitations hereinafter set forth" which include that they are to "hold title to the property ... for the use and benefit of the majority of the active communicant members of that congregation presently identified as the congregation of the [sic] The Babcock Memorial Presbyterian Church," with further provisions as to who shall be members, for election of trustees, and notices...