Church v. Wells's Executors
| Decision Date | 01 March 1855 |
| Citation | 24 Pa. 249 |
| Parties | Church versus Wells's Executors. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
In England the right to a pew in a church is obtained by a faculty or grant from the ordinary, or by allotment by the minister or churchwardens, or by prescription. In the last case the right is appurtenant to a dwelling-house, and in the others it is merely personal, and not transferable or descendible. Pew rights here depend upon no such principles, and this, without considering the relation of the English Church to the state, shows that the English law relating to pews can have no general application here.
Religious congregations here are all voluntary associations, and are each governed by rules of their own, and not by the general laws of the state. But since there must be a supreme authority somewhere to preside over all interests, and that authority must be the state, it must necessarily exercise its control sometimes even in matters pertaining to the church; but then it generally takes the laws and customs of the church as its guide, just as between individuals it takes their contracts and usages, and only for want of them resorts to the general laws and customs of the land. So it must be in relation to pews in a church.
There not appearing to be any special law or custom in relation to pews in this congregation, we must look to the general customs of the country concerning them.
A pew right is not of such a character as to prevent an absolute sale of the church edifice, either by contract or by judicial process; by itself it was never known as a subject of taxation; if the edifice burns down the pew right is gone; it does not prevent the society from tearing down and rebuilding the edifice, or from altering the whole interior arrangement of it; it does not authorize the pew-holder to...
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In re Archambault's Estate
...bequest. Such direction attempts to create an illegal perpetuity: Smith v. Townsend, 32 Pa. 434; Coggin's App., 124 Pa. 10; Church v. Wells, 24 Pa. 249; Kincaid's App., Pa. 411; Zernosky v. Kluchinsky, 278 Pa. 99. There can be no recovery for the rent accruing after testator's death, except......
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Restland Mem'l Parks, Inc. v. First Commonwealth Bank (In re Restland Mem'l Parks, Inc.)
...extensive ecclesiastical control over burial matters and concomitant clerical discouragement of secular intervention."). 21. Church v. Wells, 24 Pa. 249, 251 (1855) ("A pew right is . . . is entirely peculiar, and yet it is a sort of interest in real estate"). 22. Appeal of Kincaid, 66 Pa. ......
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Cushman v. Rector of Church of Good Shepherd of Radnor
...where the complainants show first a clearly established right, next "bad faith" toward those who have the right to complain: Church v. Wells, 24 Pa. 249; App., 66 Pa. 411; Craig v. First Presbyterian Church, 88 Pa. 42. Plaintiffs had no standing: Craig v. First Presbyterian Church, 88 Pa. 4......
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Zernosky v. Kluchinsky
...for the purpose of attending upon public worship, during the time the church is open for church purposes": 34 Cyc. 1175; Church v. Wells's Executors, 24 Pa. 249. It is not such privilege as will prevent a sale; it cannot taxed, and, if the church is destroyed, it is not a continuing claim o......