Kerr v. Hicks
| Citation | 70 S.E. 468,154 N.C. 265 |
| Parties | KERR et al. v. HICKS et al. |
| Decision Date | 01 March 1911 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina |
Appeal from Superior Court, Warren County; G. W. Ward, Judge.
Proceedings by the State, on the relation of J. H. Kerr, Solicitor, and others, against Isaac Hicks and others. From the decree rendered, defendants appeal. No error.
Where an unincorporated religious society consists of annual meetings of delegates from its constituent members, the churches, to further common interest, the organization is dissolved on adjournment of such meeting into its individual elements until reassembled, pursuant to common agreement.
T. T Hicks, for appellants.
T. M Pittman, Tasker Polk, and A. J. Harris, for appellees.
In 1871 a voluntary association known as "Shiloh Association" was formed by several missionary Baptist Churches for colored people. In 1883 the association purchased land for $2,500 and established a school called Shiloh Institute. Said school was chartered (Priv. Laws 1891 c. 321); the aforesaid association procuring the charter and naming the trustees. The charter was amended (Priv. Laws 1903, c. 49). In August, 1907, the association was composed of 58 churches. At the annual meeting held at that time, the Church of Blessed Hope at Henderson was named as the place for the next meeting of the association. But subsequently the officers of the association called an extra session to be held at Manson, December 27, 1907. The churches were notified and 44 of them sent delegates. At that meeting it was decided to withdraw fellowship from Blessed Hope Church and the resolution to hold the next annual session at that church was rescinded, and it was decided to hold it at Ridgeway. The plaintiffs claim that they were duly elected trustees of the school by the representatives of 10 or 12 churches who assembled at Blessed Hope in 1908, in accordance with the resolution passed at the regular annual meeting of 1907 and at subsequent meetings in pursuance of its action, and that the called meeting at Manson in December, 1907, was without authority and void.
The judge below held that there was no provision in the by-laws or constitution of the association for calling the extra session at Manson in December, 1907, and that the proceedings at said meeting were irregular and void, as were all the subsequent meetings held in pursuance thereof and the election of trustees at such meetings, and that the annual meeting held at Blessed Hope in 1908 was the regular meeting of the association, and that the trustees chosen thereat, and at the subsequent meetings held in pursuance of the resolutions adopted thereat, are the legally chosen trustees.
The question presented, then, is whether the action of a minority of the churches who met at the regular time and place, or that of the seceding majority held at an irregular time and place, is valid. The constitution of the association provides: There is no provision which required a majority to constitute a quorum, nor which authorized the calling by certain officers of the meeting at Manson in December, 1907. The association is not incorporated, and the constitution, which is the contract between the parties, contemplates that a majority of the members present at any regular meeting should be the association.
A corporation has only such powers as are conferred by the charter creating or the laws regulating it, and a voluntary association has no existence or power, except as contained in its formal articles of agreement, or established by custom acquiesced in by the parties to it. When the association consists, as here, of annual meeting of delegates from its constituent members, the churches, to further certain common interests, the organization is dissolved, upon adjournment into its individual elements until reassembled, pursuant to the common agreement. "In church...
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