Happy v. Morton
| Decision Date | 31 January 1864 |
| Citation | 1864 WL 2945,33 Ill. 398 |
| Parties | W. H. HAPPY et al.v.JOSEPH MORTON et al. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
APPEAL from Circuit Court of Morgan county.
Bill in chancery filed by appellees against appellants.
The case is sufficiently stated by the court. The decree below was for complainants.
I. J. Ketchum and D. A. & T. W. Smith, for appellants.
Morrison Epler and S. T. Logan, for appellees.
In the year 1832 a religious society was formed at Jacksonville, called by its members the Church of Christ, and the association has been maintained from that time to the present, during which the number of its members has largely increased, and many of them have departed this life. It was never organized under our statute providing for the incorporation of religious societies. The society elected its own preachers and officers, and was the sole judge of their qualifications, and was not subordinate to any other society or ecclesiastical body, but in every respect an independent association, subject to no authoritative discipline or reproof except such as might be self-imposed. In the year 1835 its members and others favorable to its prosperity, contributed the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars for the purchase of a lot of ground on which to erect a house for public worship. The purchase was made and the land conveyed to certain persons by name for the use of the so-called Church of Christ. A house of worship was erected thereon by the members of the society, which remained there and was used by them for several years. In the year 1850 the society purchased another lot of ground adjoining the one which they first purchased, which was also conveyed to certain persons by name for the use of the so-called Church of Christ. The society disposed of a part of the lands thus purchased, and upon the remainder erected a new house of public worship, the old one being removed. The land purchased in 1850 and the new house of worship were also paid for by contributions from members of the society and others favorable to its prosperity.
About the first of September, 1857, the Rev. Walter J. Russell commenced preaching to the society, and he continued his ministrations, under yearly elections, up to the time of his death, which took place in 1863, since the commencement of this suit. In August, 1860, a minority of the society, composed of the complainants and those whom they represent, organized a new society, under the statute providing for the incorporation of religious societies. The members of the new society thereafter declined to attend the meetings of the old one, alleging that the Rev. Mr. Russell and a majority of its members had departed from the faith held by the society when it was formed. After various unsuccessful efforts to reconcile the differences between the parties, the complainants, as trustees of the new society, composed of a minority of the old one, filed a bill in chancery against the Rev. Mr. Russell and certain persons representing the majority, alleging that he preached, and the majority of the old society sustained him in preaching, doctrines contrary to those of the society when it was formed, and when said property was acquired, thereby diverting its use from the purpose for which it was donated, and praying for its surrender to the complainants, and that the defendants might be restrained from disturbing them in its use and occupation. Two amendments were subsequently made to the bill, more specifically setting forth the faith of the society and the alleged departures from it, which will be more particularly noticed hereafter. No critical examination of the jurisdiction of courts of equity over charitable trusts is necessary to dispose of the present case, and only some well established general principles will be referred to. Courts of equity will exert their powers to prevent a misuse or an abuse of charitable trusts, and especially trusts of a religious nature, by trustees or by a majority of a society having possession of the trust property; but in all cases the trust and the abuse of it must be clearly established in accordance with the rules by which courts are governed in administering justice. If the alleged abuse is a departure from the tenets of the founders of a charity, their particular tenets must be stated, that it may appear from what tenets the alleged wrongdoers have departed. In like manner it must be stated in what the alleged departure consists. Courts of equity do not interfere on account of inaccuracies of expression or inappropriate figures of speech, nor for departures from mathematical exactness in the language employed in inculcating the tenets of donors. There must be a real and substantial departure from the purposes of the trust, such an one as amounts to a perversion of it, to authorize the exercise of equitable jurisdiction in granting relief. Taking these well established rules as our guide, we are required to dismiss from our consideration a large portion of the voluminous record in this case. The original bill alleges that the property in question was purchased for the purpose and with the intention of erecting thereon a suitable building for the use of the society called the Church of Christ, in which to worship Almighty God according to the teachings of the Christian or Reform Church; but it does not allege what the teachings of the Christian or Reform Church were, nor in what particulars these teachings had been departed from.
It is true, the bill alleges that the society at Jacksonville, from its original organization, continued for a time in harmony and union with all the brotherhood of the Christian church through the United States as to theological views and teachings, and as to church government and discipline, but it does not allege what the theological views and teachings of the brotherhood throughout the United States were, nor any trust that the worship in the church at Jacksonville should continue in harmony and union with such views and teachings, nor in what particulars such views and teachings have been departed from. An elemental principle of pleading requires us to intend everything to have been lawful and consistent with the trust, which is not expressly shown on the bill to have been unlawful or inconsistent with it. Foss v. Harbottle, 2 Hare, 502. The defects of the original bill were attempted to be supplied by two amendments, which allege that the society at Jacksonville was founded and established upon certain doctrines specifically set forth, which were held by its members when the property in question was purchased. For convenience, we shall state these alleged doctrines in a numerical order: First, that the Bible, and the Bible alone, is the only sufficient rule of faith and practice, and the only allowable creed. Second, that the word of God, as therein contained and set forth is the sword of the spirit, through which the Spirit of God operates in the conviction and conversion of sinners and preparing them to believe and obey the gospel and for fellowship in the church after obedience. That men on reading the gospel, or hearing it proclaimed, are able to believe in its precepts and obey its commands, and are under obligation so to do; and that no person has any right to wait for or expect the Spirit of God to operate on his mind or heart by special operation or direct action other than through the word, to produce in him faith or repentance, or a disposition to obey. Third, that the gospel as it was written by the prophets, apostles and evangelists, constitutes the rule of faith and practice; that all are bound to believe and obey it as written, and that no part of it nor any of its precepts, injunctions, revelations or promises are to be enlarged or diminished, altered, varied, explained or interpreted by any supposed revelation made at any time since to the individual or to any other, by a direct operation of the Holy Spirit on the mind or heart of any individual or any supposed inner light, or promptings of any agency acting internally, or invisibly and inaudibly. Fourth, that the Bible alone is the only and all sufficient rule of faith and practice, and is to be taught as it was written, and is not to be endangered by permitting it to be expounded, added to, diminished, interpreted, perverted, or in anywise altered by or in consequence of any inward impressions or delusive imaginings of excited emotions or supposed communications from invisible or inaudible sources, or assumptions of direct revelations from the spirit of God. Fifth, that the society had always, prior to the...
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...a society, operates ipso facto as a transfer of the rights and interests of individual members to the corporation hereby created.--Happy v. Morton, 33 Ill. 398. The incorporated church has succeeded to all the rights of the unincorporated church. * * *" This court also quoted from Hope of A......
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