Hardin v. Baptist Church

• Decision Date: 22 June 1883
• Citation: 51 Mich. 137,16 N.W. 311
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: HARDIN v. BAPTIST CHURCH.

16 N.W. 311

51 Mich. 137

HARDIN v. BAPTIST CHURCH.

Supreme Court of Michigan

June 22, 1883

A religious corporation has nothing to do with the church represented by it, except as it provides for its temporal wants. It cannot alter the church faith or covenant; it cannot receive or expel members, or prevent the church, as distinguished from the corporate body, from receiving or expelling whomsoever that body may see fit to receive or expel; and consequently no action can be maintained against the corporation for an alleged expulsion of a member from the church.

Error to Wayne.

Sylvester Larned, for plaintiff and appellant.

Wilkinson Post & Wilkinson, for defendant.

COOLEY J.

The preliminary objection to the maintenance of this action is so unmistakably fatal that there can be no occasion or excuse for considering any other. The plaintiff, who, previous to February 2, 1881, was a member in good standing of the Second Baptist Church of Detroit, brings suit against the defendant to recover damages for having been on that day unwarrantably and without trial upon charges expelled from membership. The suit is against the corporate body known in law as "The Trustees of the Second Baptist Church of Detroit," and which was organized by voluntary association under authority conferred by the Revised Statutes of 1838. The provision contained in that Code is substantially the same which has always existed in this state, and which is simple and easily understood. Persons desirous of forming themselves into a religious society sign articles of association for the purpose, agree upon a name elect trustees, and put their articles on record when duly perfected. They thereby become a corporation by the name agreed upon, and may take, hold, and convey property, and exercise the ordinary functions of corporate bodies. The associates are not necessarily professors of any particular belief or faith, or members of any church; and corporate succession is kept up by conferring the privileges of corporators on all who regularly attend worship in the society and contribute to its support. And the trustees who are to manage the temporal affairs of the corporation may or may not be church members.

Connected with the corporation the statute contemplates that there will be a church, though possibly this may not be essential. In this case there is one. The church has its members, who are supposed to hold certain beliefs and subscribe some covenant with each other, if such is the usage of the denomination to which the church is attached. The church is not incorporated and has nothing whatever to do with the temporalities. It does not control the property or the trustees; it can receive nobody into the society and can expel nobody from it. On the other hand, the corporation has nothing to do with the church except as it provides for the church wants. It cannot alter the church faith or covenant, it cannot receive members, it cannot expel members, it cannot prevent the church receiving or expelling whomsoever that body shall see fit to receive or expel. This concise statement is amply sufficient to show that this suit has no...