Glaze v. Allen

• Decision Date: 05 July 1919
• Docket Number: No. 19483.,19483.
• Citation: 213 S.W. 784
• Parties: GLAZE v. ALLEN.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

213 S.W. 784

GLAZE v. ALLEN.

No. 19483.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

July 5, 1919.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Sullivan County Fred Lamb, Judge.

Action by Conrad Glaze against Ray 0. Allen. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

This is an action in two counts. The first count is an action to determine the title of one acre of land located In Sullivan county. The second count is in ejectment to recover possession of the same.

Trial was had in the circuit court of Sullivan county, which resulted in a judgment in favor of defendant, and thereupon plaintiff duly appealed to this court.

The facts necessary to an understanding of the issues involved may be summarized as follows:

On November 4, 1891, appellant and his wife, as grantors, executed a general warranty deed conveying the one acre of land, now in dispute, to three persons designated as "trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. South." Said deed contained the following clause:

"In trust that said premises hereinafter set forth, shall be used, kept, maintained and disposed of as a place of divine worship, for the use of the ministry and membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, subject to the discipline, usage and ministerial appointments of said church, as from time to time, authorized and declared by the General Conference of said Church and the Annual Conference within whose hands bounds the said premises are situated."

The evidence shows that no consideration was paid for the conveyance. After the conveyance was made, a church house was erected on said premises out of money raised by public subscription, and said building and premises were used for church purposes from that time until six or seven years prior to this trial. During the six or seven years prior to this controversy, for reasons not disclosed by the record, the premises were not used.

This church property was sold in April, 1915, to the defendant for the sum of $100, and afterwards the church building thereon was by the purchaser removed. The conveyance was made by the trustees of said church. By an order of the quarterly conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, the proceeds of said sale were used in repairing the "Humphreys Church," which was located at Humphreys, and belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

At the time this sale was made the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which had been duly promulgated by the General Conference of that church, contained the following provision:

"Paragraph 508. The trustees, with consent of the preacher in charge and the quarterly conference, or if a district parsona, thin (if the Presiding Elder and the district conference, shall have power to sell any church or parsonage property, which has gone out of use, or which should be removed to another place, the proceeds of which shall be invested in other church property under the direction of the quarterly or district conference."

"Paragraph 392. Each Annual Conference is authorized to make such modification in the deeds as they may find the...