Minton v. Leavell

• Citation: 297 S.W. 615
• Decision Date: 03 June 1927
• Docket Number: (No. 9046.)
• Parties: MINTON et al. v. LEAVELL et al.<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas

297 S.W. 615

MINTON et al. v. LEAVELL et al.^*

(No. 9046.)

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Galveston.

June 3, 1927.

Rehearing Denied June 23, 1927.

Appeal from District Court, Harris County; Chas. E. Ashe, Judge.

Suit by J. M. Minton and others against J. B. Leavell and others. From an order denying a temporary injunction and dissolving a restraining order, the plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

Andrews, Streetman, Logue & Mobley and Fulbright, Crooker & Freeman, all of Houston, for appellants.

Homer E. Stephenson and Tom C. Rowe, both of Houston, for appellees.

PLEASANTS, C. J.

This suit was brought by J. M. Minton and twenty-five others, menbers of the First Baptist Church of Houston, against appellee J. B. Leavell, individually and, as pastor, moderator, and chairman of the board of deacons of such church, and against the church in its corporate capacity and as a voluntary association and religious society, to enjoin the defendants from interfering in any way with plaintiffs' rights as members of the church, and to restrain defendants from taking any action to exclude plaintiffs from membership in the church, or from attempting to enforce or put in effect a resolution adopted by a meeting of the church membership requiring all members of the church to sign an instrument, designated as the "Church Covenant," on or before January 1, 1927, in order to retain their rights of membership in the church.

The district judge to whom the petition was first presented on January 1, 1927, granted a temporary restraining order in accordance with plaintiffs' prayer, and then set the case for hearing on application for temporary injunction for January 10th. On this hearing a temporary injunction was refused on the ground of lack of jurisdiction in the court over the subject-matter of the suit, and the restraining order dissolved. Notice of appeal having been given by plaintiffs, the court, on their motion, renewed the restraining order pending the appeal.

It is unnecessary for the purpose of this opinion to set out at length the allegations of plaintiffs' petition, and we shall only copy those portions showing the character of the rights asserted by plaintiffs, and the acts of the defendants of which complaint is made. The petition alleges:

"That the defendant religious society, known as the First Baptist Church of Houston, Tex., is a congregation of believers in Christ, baptised on a credible confession of faith and voluntarily associated together under special covenant for the maintenance of the worship, the truths, the ordinances, and the discipline of the Gospel, membership wherein involves no other personal obligation except to promote the objects of said church as expressed in the Covenant, which objects are three, namely:

"(1) The social, united worship of God.

"(2) The perpetuation and diffusion of the Gospel.

"(3) The sanctification of its own members.

"Said Covenant includes only the clearly defined principles which constitute the articles of faith and practice and professed belief necessary to membership in said church, and upon joining said church it was necessary that and, in fact, each and every member of said church did subscribe to, approve of, and accept said Covenant according to the usages and customs of said church; that said church has no right to command, as a duty, a particular mode of showing attachment to Christ, unless He has Himself commanded it, nor has said church the right to resolve itself into a society for the accomplishment or furtherance of temperance, peace, or other such virtues, nor has it any sort or kind of inquisitorial powers or provinces, nor can it pledge any member to anything but what he has pledged himself to upon affiliating with said church — such members having united themselves to the particular church by promising to obey it in all that Christ has commanded, and in nothing more — the organization, usages, customs, tenets, and beliefs of said church being fundamentally grounded upon the foundation that with respect to everything else its membership is perfectly unpledged and uncommitted; that a member of such church under the rules and customs of the church and under the Covenants thereof can be expelled therefrom only when charged with wrongdoing, and even when so charged with wrongdoing he is presumed to be innocent until by due investigation and regular hearing and trial he has been proved guilty, and under such circumstances he is entitled to a full and fair trial with every reasonable opportunity for defense, the only exception to which is in cases of flagrant crime or immorality in which the offense is public and unmistakable, when an immediate explusion may follow without formal trial.

"Plaintiffs would further show that there is a well-defined manner and method of excluding or expelling a member that must precede such exclusion or expulsion; namely, the officers of the church, becoming aware of reports implicating a member, will proceed privately to investigate that, and if found to be true will endeavor to reclaim such member; after the failure of the first attempt, another should be taken tenderly and privately with every additional appliance which fidelity and kindness can suggest; in event of any continued failure, the officers should bring the case before the church with all the evidence, and if the statement of the case against the accused is controverted by the accused, or by anybody in his behalf, then the accused should have every opportunity for defense; in the event of such charges being made, the members of the church should be assembled as a court wherein the rules of evidence which obtain in courts of law should be followed, and, in event of proved guilt of unmistaken gross immorality, exclusion from membership is the final act of power applied by the church under such circumstances, the members of the church that have attained the age of discretion determining by a majority vote whether or not one of the aforesaid grounds for expulsion has been proved; that a person having once become a member of said church can have his membership terminated only in one of three manners, namely:

"(1) By death of the member.

"(2) By having issued, on his application, a certificate of his church standing, or a letter of dismission for the purpose of uniting with another church (which, however, does not dissolve in any respect the relation of the member to the particular church until he is actually received into another church).

"(3) By exclusion of expulsion upon the grounds and in the manner hereinabove set forth."

It is further alleged that the First Baptist Church of Houston has been organized for a number of years and has approximately 5,000 members, and prior to occurrences subsequently mentioned and complained of in the petition, the members of the church had dwelt together "in brotherly love and spiritual communion" and had made financial contributions to the church to the reasonable extent of their individual means, and as a result of such contributions valuable property had been acquired by the church for church purposes, the probable value of such property being $600,000. Then follows lengthy allegations criticizing and complaining of defendants' management of the property and financial affairs of the church, but as no insistence is made in appellants' brief upon any invasion of the property rights of plaintiffs which would entitle them to an injunction, these allegations need not be set out.

It is next alleged, in substance: That the defendant J. B. Leavell, the pastor of the church, was intolerant from any dissent from any of his views upon church matters, and that for a few months immediately prior to November, 1926, plaintiffs and other members of the congregation became somewhat insistent in expressing their views disapproving the pastor's conduct of church affairs, and this caused the defendant Leavell to conceive and attempt to put into execution a plan or scheme to exclude plaintiffs and all other members of the congregation not in accord with the pastor's views and method of conducting the affairs of the church, from further membership therein. That in pursuance of this scheme the defendant pastor selected and appointed a committee of five members and prevailed upon them to suggest and recommend to the church congregation the passage of a resolution proposed by the pastor, requiring each member of the church to sign an instrument designated the "Church Covenant," whereby the member repledged and reconsecrated himself to the service of Christ and to the Baptist faith, the resolution providing that only those signing the covenant on or before January 1, 1927, should thereafter constitute the membership of the church. That this resolution was first presented to and adopted by the congregation at a meeting attended by not more than 200 members. That by reason of the drastic provision of this resolution, which would automatically exclude a large number of the members of the church from further fellowship therein, without personal objection to such members, or notice of any accusation against them, or trial by the congregation, and which was voted on by only 4 per cent. of the membership, plaintiffs and a large number of other members of the congregation insisted:

"That said matter be again considered and upon a subsequent occasion had a regular business meeting of said church and motion was made to rescind, make void, and remove from the records that part of the resolution theretofore adopted by the church which provided that `only those signing the Church Covenant on or before January 1, 1927, constitute the membership of the church,' the contention being urged at said meeting that these plaintiffs and other members being acquainted with the matter entertained no objection whatever to resigning the Church Covenant and entertained no objection to repledging themselves to it and reconsecrating their lives to the Baptist faith and to...