Greater Fairview Missionary Baptist Church v. Hollins

• Decision Date: 26 March 2015
• Docket Number: No. 2013–IA–01951–SCT.,2013–IA–01951–SCT.
• Citation: 160 So.3d 223
• Parties: GREATER FAIRVIEW MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, Payton Lacy, Baxter Evans, Harrell Neal, Kelvin Thigpen and David Edwin Levy v. Danny Ray HOLLINS.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

160 So.3d 223

GREATER FAIRVIEW MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, Payton Lacy, Baxter Evans, Harrell Neal, Kelvin Thigpen and David Edwin Levy

v.Danny Ray HOLLINS.

No. 2013–IA–01951–SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 26, 2015.

Felicia Perkins, Jessica Ayers, attorneys for appellants.

Suzanne Keys, attorney for appellee.

Before DICKINSON, P.J., LAMAR and CHANDLER, JJ.

Opinion

LAMAR, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. Greater Fairview Missionary Baptist Church's pastor, Danny Ray Hollins, was placed on paid administrative leave after he was accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a minor. When the church members decided to vote on whether to retain him as pastor, he sought injunctive relief in chancery court. The chancellor issued a temporary restraining order, but the church voted anyway and dismissed Hollins. The chancellor then vacated the vote and ordered the church to conduct another vote, this time with certain court-ordered procedures regarding notice, eligibility, vote-counting, and security. This Court granted the church defendants' motion for interlocutory appeal, and we now vacate the chancery court's orders in this case.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. In October 2012, Danny Ray Hollins was pastor of Greater Fairview Missionary Baptist Church in Jackson. That month, he was placed on paid administrative leave when a member of the church accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior with a minor.¹ Later that year, the church decided to hold a vote on whether to retain Hollins as pastor. That vote originally was scheduled to take place in early 2013. But tensions arose in the church about Hollins's status, giving rise to a “chaotic situation,” and the vote did not take place as planned. Instead, the church voted to allow the Deacons' Ministry to form a legal committee and to hire outside legal counsel for assistance in resolving the internal conflict. With the help of a local law firm, the church developed an election procedure and scheduled a vote for March 2, 2013.

¶ 3. One of the deacons² compiled a list of active church members who were at least sixteen years old and certified it under oath the day before the vote. The deacons and their counsel arranged for a certified public accounting firm to count and certify the votes and for security personnel to be present. Upon entering the church, members reported at various tables based on the first letter of their last name, identified themselves, and received a ballot. That ballot was “regular” if the voter was on the membership roll and “conditional” if he or she was not. Ballots also were distributed to members of the church who were “shut-in” and could not make it to the church that day. Once the ballots were completed, they were deposited into boxes which were under the control of the CPA and his assistant.

¶ 4. On March 1, 2013, the day before the vote, Hollins filed a petition in the Hinds County Chancery Court seeking “to enjoin any unauthorized and improper meetings and/or actions taken outside a properly called membership meeting.” The petition named the church and five deacons as defendants.³ Hollins asserted that the church planned to have a meeting on March 2 “to vote on a resolution discharging [him] as pastor.” He claimed that the vote would be invalid because (1) “there ha[d] been no certification of the list of members in good standing who would be entitled to vote ...”;⁴ (2) absent such certification, adequate notice to eligible members could not be accomplished; and (3) the state denominational guidelines had not been followed because “there ha[d] been no attempts at Conciliation or other notice given to Plaintiff as pastor as required.”

¶ 5. Hollins also claimed that he would be irreparably harmed if he was “voted out as Pastor,” in that his reputation would suffer, he would lose his income, and he would suffer emotionally. Finally, Hollins asserted that there was “a high likelihood [that he would succeed] in the merits of his case, namely that any meeting of church membership without proper certification of voter rolls and notice and adherence to all established guidelines is void....” Hollins's counsel certified that a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) was needed, that he had been unable to notice the defendants, that the defendants would not be prejudiced by the TRO, and that on “information and belief [the church] is not represented by counsel duly hired by the church membership.”⁵

¶ 6. The chancellor issued the TRO, apparently without reading it.⁶ While five deacons and the church itself were named as defendants, the TRO was served on only four of the deacons, as the agent for service of process for the church was deceased and could not be served. The TRO purported to enjoin “any membership meeting,” but the chancellor later explained it was intended to “restrain any vote that may take place.”

¶ 7. Despite the TRO, the vote took place as scheduled on March 2, 2013. The ballot contained one question: “Should Danny Hollins, Ph.D., remain pastor of Greater Fairview M.B. Church?” More than four hundred church members voted, and less than fifty percent voted to retain Hollins as pastor.

¶ 8. Hollins quickly filed a motion to set aside the results of the vote and to hold the church defendants in contempt and incarcerate them. Hollins also filed a motion asking the court to set a procedure for determining eligible voters and for voting. On March 7, 2013, defendants filed a motion to dissolve the TRO, to dismiss the action, and for sanctions against Hollins. The chancellor heard brief arguments from each side the next day. Although no evidence was introduced at that time, the chancellor did set aside the results of the March 2 vote.⁷

¶ 9. The chancellor also stated that “we will conduct further evidence to allow a further vote by this church to determine if Mr. Hollins is the pastor of this church or not.” He asked the parties to provide him with the “documents necessary to start that,” explaining, “I have done several of these before. If you can't do it, I will.” He continued, saying, “we will conduct a vote, and I will supervise it with proper guidelines.” In his Order, the chancellor explained that he was setting aside the vote because “[d]efendants went forward with their meeting or vote in spite of this Court's order.”

¶ 10. On March 12, 2013, the defendants filed a motion for reconsideration. They argued that “[t]here were several egregious mistakes of fact and law made in the Court's Order.” Among those, they said that the TRO did not expressly prohibit a vote; that none of the defendants was served prior to the vote; that on March 8 there were no issues before the chancellor because the TRO was moot at that point since the vote had taken place; that the chancellor had ruled without any evidence on March 8; and that by reinstating Hollins as “interim pastor,” the court had granted relief that Hollins did not request. The defendants also argued that the church had “employed extraordinary measures and incurred considerable expenses in its efforts to regain peace and dignity within the church;” that more than four hundred members of the church had voted, including Hollins's wife, children, and siblings, and that more than fifty percent voted to remove Hollins. The defendants concluded by stating that “[t]he church has spoken,” and an “unconscionable injustice would occur if [Hollins was afforded relief].”

¶ 11. The litigation continued for several months, with additional hearings on various recusal motions, contempt motions, motions to dismiss, and efforts by Hollins to get back-pay from the church. On October 8, 2013, the chancellor issued the Memorandum Opinion of the Court. In it, the chancellor noted that “in an effort to extract [himself] from this ‘religious thicket,’ [he had] on numerous occasions, urged the parties to meet together and devise an agreed procedure for a new vote.” The chancellor also noted that the Constitution and Bylaws of the church provided that:

the government of the Church is vested in the body of believers who compose it. It is subject to the control of no other Ecclesiastical body, but it recognizes and sustains the obligations of mutual counsel and co-operation which are common among Baptist Churches.

The chancellor found that “[t]he Constitution and Bylaws do not address the procedure for notifying the congregation of such events.” He further found that the “normal custom and practice” of the church was “lacking in formality,” so the Deacons' Ministry, “along with counsel, attempted to formulate a fair procedure for the vote on the dismissal of [Hollins].” However, the chancellor then determined that “these efforts fall short in that they were a violation of this Court's Temporary Restraining Order. ” (Emphasis added.)

¶ 12. Before setting out the specific guidelines for how the new vote should take place, the chancellor noted that the church had

adopted a Constitution and Bylaws and a Handbook of Church Ministries Policies and Procedures. This Court has thoroughly and carefully reviewed each of these documents. After such review, this Court can unequivocally find that [the church] lacks the adopted procedures for determining church members eligible for voting, notification proceedings necessary for establishing a voting meeting, procedures for conducting a vote with regard to the discharge or retention of a pastor, and procedures for the determining the proper number of votes necessary to discharge or retain a pastor.

Furthermore, despite the chancellor's hesitation to get involved in “ecclesiastical matters,” the chancellor determined that he “must intervene in an effort to restore peace to the congregation and to prevent further deterioration of a church congregation.”

¶ 13. The chancellor relied on this Court's decision in Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church ex rel. Board of Deacons v. Wallace, 835 So.2d 67 (Miss.2003), and explained that the “Mississippi Supreme Court has previously determined that where a...