Gewin v. Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church

• Decision Date: 16 December 1909
• Citation: 51 So. 947,166 Ala. 345
• Parties: GEWIN ET AL. v. MT. PILGRIM BAPTIST CHURCH.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

51 So. 947

166 Ala. 345

GEWIN ET AL. v. MT. PILGRIM BAPTIST CHURCH.

Supreme Court of Alabama

December 16, 1909

Rehearing Denied Feb. 26, 1910.

Appeal from Chancery Court, Jefferson County; A. H. Benners Chancellor.

Suit by the Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church against W. C. Gewin and others. From a judgment for complainant, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Arthur L. Brown and Bush & Bush, for appellants.

W. T Stewart and W. K. Terry, for appellee.

SAYRE J.

At a time when Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church was an unincorporated religious society, Messrs. Gewin and McGahey contracted to sell to Spencer and others, trustees for the church, a certain lot at Cleveland upon which it was proposed to erect a church building. At that time the services of the church were being held at another place. Schism intervened. The church divided into factions; each having its own pastor, and each claiming to be the true Mt. Pilgrim Church. But before differences became irreconcilable payments on the new lot were completed by or for the church, and the old churchhouse was burned. Shortly afterwards, when the contest had taken definite shape, the church was incorporated by the filing of a petition by Gray and others for incorporation under the statute. This bill is filed by the incorporated church, and seeks a decree requiring Gewin and McGahey to specifically perform their contract by executing a deed of conveyance of the lot to the incorporated church, that its title to the property be quieted against the claims of the defendants, and that the defendants be enjoined from holding religious services in the name of the complainant church, from collecting money in the name of the church, and from trespassing upon or interfering with the property of the church. Messrs. Gewin and McGahey in their answer avow their willingness and readiness to convey if they only may be informed as to whom they ought in equity to convey.

The unincorporated society was without capacity to acquire or hold title. Stewart v. White, 128 Ala. 202, 30 So 526, 55 L. R. A. 211. Nor did the conveyance to trustees--or rather, the agreement to convey--for the unincorporated society in strictness create a charitable use. Nevertheless, the jurisdiction of the chancery court over such voluntary associations and their property is maintained in this state, independently of the English statute of charitable uses and of any prerogative power of the court, on the ground of the trust nature of the property, the charitable uses for which it is designed, and the inadequacy of legal remedies. Burke v. Roper, 79 Ala. 138; Williams v. Pearson, 38 Ala. 299; Carter v. Balfour, 19 Ala. 814. Equity must therefore have power to compel a conveyance to the incorporated church. This will not involve the court in the impossible function of making a contract for the parties, nor require the performance of a contract differently from its agreed terms. An organization, under the statute, by the majority of a society, operates ipso facto as a transfer of the rights and interests of individual members to the corporation thereby created. Happy v. Morton, 33 Ill. 398. The incorporated church has succeeded to all the rights of the unincorporated church. The successor is the sole beneficiary of the contract entered upon by the trustees. The effort to enforce the contract necessarily involves an inquiry as to which of the factions stands for the true Mt. Pilgrim Church. It would be unseemly and abhorrent to justice that such a question should be determined by the result of a race of diligence in securing an incorporation under the statute. The two factions of this church are not divided on any question of religious doctrine or denominational practice. They seem more intent upon the use of a name, and they evidently attach importance to the possession of the property of the church. The Baptist church is congregational in its polity. It is democratic in its organization. It is the right of each congregation to rule...