Original Glorious Church of God In Christ, Inc. of Apostolic Faith v. Myers, 17257

• Court: Supreme Court of West Virginia
• Citation: 367 S.E.2d 30,179 W.Va. 255
• Docket Number: No. 17257,17257
• Parties: ORIGINAL GLORIOUS CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST, INC. OF the APOSTOLIC FAITH and Bishop Oney Fitzpatrick, Bishop S. Graves and the General Board of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ of the Apostolic faith v. Douglas MYERS, in his Capacity as Pastor of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ, Deskins Addition, Logan County, West Virginia, and Individually, Effie L. Ruffin, John N. Bush and Fleming Hawkins, in their Capacity as Trustees of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ, Deskins Additions, Logan County, West Virginia, and Individually, and Members of the Said Church.
• Decision Date: 04 March 1988

Page 30

367 S.E.2d 30

179 W.Va. 255

ORIGINAL GLORIOUS CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST, INC. OF the

APOSTOLIC FAITH and Bishop Oney Fitzpatrick, Bishop S.

Graves and the General Board of the Original Glorious Church

of God in Christ of the Apostolic faith v. Douglas MYERS, in his Capacity as Pastor of the Original

Glorious Church of God in Christ, Deskins Addition, Logan

County, West Virginia, and Individually, Effie L. Ruffin,

John N. Bush and Fleming Hawkins, in their Capacity as

Trustees of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ,

Deskins Additions, Logan County, West Virginia, and

Individually, and Members of the Said Church.

No. 17257.

Supreme Court of Appeals of

West Virginia.

March 4, 1988.

Syllabus by the Court

1. " 'The power of the civil courts to interfere with the internal operations of churches is severely limited by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, and by West Virginia Constitution, Art. III, § 15; therefore, the separation of church and state dictates two distinct approaches to church litigation depending upon whether a given church conforms to a hierarchical church structure where the local churches are connected with and subordinate to the laws, procedures and organs established by the constitution and bylaws of the general church, or alternatively whether the church is congregational in nature with authority vested in local congregations.' Syl. pt. 1, Board of Church Extension v. Eads, 159 W.Va. 943, 230 S.E.2d 911 (1976)." Syl. pt. 1, Church of God of Madison v. Noel, 173 W.Va. 589, 318 S.E.2d 920 (1984).

2. " 'With regard to disputes within hierarchical churches, civil courts should respect, and where appropriate enforce, the final adjudications of the highest church tribunals, provided that such adjudications are not procured by fraud or collusion.' Syl. pt. 2, Board of Church Extension v. Eads, 159 W.Va. 943, 230 S.E.2d 911 (1976)." Syl. pt. 2, Church of God of Madison v. Noel, 173 W.Va. 589, 318 S.E.2d 920 (1984).

3. "On appeal of a case involving an action covered by the Rules of Civil Procedure, this Court will disregard and regard as harmless any error, defect or irregularity in the proceedings in the trial court which does not affect the substantial rights of the parties." Syl. pt. 2, Boggs v. Settle, 150 W.Va. 330, 145 S.E.2d 446 (1965).

Charles R. Garten, Cagle & Garten, Logan, for Douglas Myers et al., appellants.

Henderson & Henderson, Herbert H. Henderson, Huntington, for Original Glorious Church of God et al., appellees.

PER CURIAM:

This case is before the Court upon the appeal of Douglas Myers, former pastor of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ, Deskins Addition, Logan County, West Virginia (hereinafter, the local church) and Effie Ruffin, John N. Bush and Fleming Hawkins, in their former capacities as trustees of the local church. It arises from an order entered following a trial without a jury in the Circuit Court of Logan County. The trial court voided a conveyance made by the former trustees of the local church and concluded that title was in the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ, Inc., of the Apostolic Faith (hereinafter the "national church").

The sole issue on appeal is whether, after voiding a clearly invalid conveyance of the local property, the trial court properly concluded that title was in the national church. The appellants contend that the trial court (1) improperly found that the governing ecclesiastical law dictates that the property remain under the control of the national church (through its trustees); and (2) improperly gave the national church legal title to the local property, violating W.Va.Const., art. VI, § 47. ¹

We affirm the trial court's order that the national church is entitled to the property, but modify it insofar as the order also gives the national church (rather than the national church trustees, who were also parties to this action ² ) title to the local property.

I

The appellee, national church, filed an action in circuit court to regain property used by the local church prior to its disbanding. The national church was founded in West Virginia in 1920. Its national headquarters is in Cleveland, Ohio. There are 72 local churches in 12 states and 75 to 100 missions in Jamaica, Haiti and India.

The church is organized in a hierarchical structure. ³ All members agree to abide by the doctrinal and administrative law set forth in the Constitution and Government of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ of the Apostolic Faith.

The appellants are the former pastor and trustees of the local church in Logan County, West Virginia. In February, 1983, a schism had developed between the national church and the local church. The entire congregation of the local church (a total of 9 persons), including the named appellants, trustees of the local church, Ruffin, Bush and Hawkins, agreed to leave the national church and formed their own church, the Emmanuel Tabernacle Baptist Church of God in Christ of the Apostolic Faith. The former trustees of the old local church continued to serve as the trustees of the new local church.

In July 1983, appellants, Ruffin, Bush and Hawkins attempted to convey the old local church property and its contents to the new church. The deed conveyed the property from Ruffin, Bush and Hawkins as trustees for the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Deskins Addition, Logan County, West Virginia, to Ruffin, Bush and Hawkins as trustees for the Glorious Tabernacle Church of God in Christ of the Apostolic Faith. ⁴ The trial court properly found that the July, 1983 deed was invalid as Ruffin, Bush and Hawkins were not, as of February, 1983, members, let alone trustees, of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ of the Apostolic Faith, Deskins Addition. Therefore, the July, 1983 conveyance was void.

Once this fact was clearly established at trial, ⁵ the only remaining issue was whether the national church or the local church should retain control of the property.

The trial court found that the church has a hierarchical structure. It further found that based on various sections of the Constitution and Government of the Original Glorious Church of God in Christ, Inc. of the Apostolic Faith, the ecclesiastical law dictates that the local property belongs to the national body.

The appellants contend that these factual findings were not supported by the evidence and that the trial court improperly denied them a jury trial.

II

Due to First Amendment entanglement considerations, our Court has had a longstanding, limited form of review in church property dispute cases. Syl. pts. 1 and 2 of Church of God of Madison v. Noel, et al., 173 W.Va. 589, 318 S.E.2d 920 (1984) state:

'The power of the civil courts to interfere with the internal operations of churches is severely limited by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, and by West Virginia Constitution, Art. III, § 15; therefore, the separation of church and state dictates two distinct approaches to church litigation depending upon whether a given church conforms to a hierarchical church structure where the local churches are connected with and subordinate to the laws, procedures and organs established by the constitution and bylaws of the general church, or alternatively whether the church is congregational in nature with authority vested in local congregations.' Syl. pt. 1, Board of Church Extension v. Eads, 159 W.Va. 943, 230 S.E.2d 911 (1976).

'With regard to disputes within hierarchical churches, civil courts should respect, and where appropriate enforce, the final adjudications of the highest church tribunals, provided that such adjudications are not procured by fraud or collusion.' Syl. pt. 2, Board of Church Extension v. Eads, 159 W.Va. 943, 230 S.E.2d 911 (1976).

In Noel, this Court retained the analysis applied in Brady v. Reiner, 157 W.Va. 10, 35-36, 198 S.E.2d 812, 827 (1973) overruled on other grounds, Board of Church Extension v. Eads, 159 W.Va. 943, 230 S.E.2d 911 (1976).

This "judicial deference" form of analysis was first espoused in Watson v. Jones, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 679, 20 L.Ed. 666 (1871). If the church has a hierarchical structure and its leaders have addressed a doctrinal or administrative dispute, then civil courts do not intervene, absent fraud or collusion. Noel,173 W.Va. at 592, 318 S.E.2d at 923.

First, under the "judicial deference" test, there was unrefuted evidence that the national church was hierarchically organized. The structure of the organization is clearly such that, "the local congregation is subject to a larger church body, with a generally recognized internal system of conflict resolution." Noel, 173 W.Va. at 592, 318 S.E.2d 923. See n. 3, supra.

Second, the national church's ruling body had already addressed the issue of property disputes. Two sections of the national church's constitution applied to the instant case.

Article VI, section 6 states that: "No church group desiring to leave this body shall have any legal claim on church property if the property in question was purchased and paid for with general funds or if general funds were in any way used in the purchase thereof."

The appellees produced a check in the amount of $300 from the national general fund to the local church for the construction of the local church in 1964.

Further, Article VIII(D), section III states: "Local Church Trustees Local church trustees are necessary only because state laws require them for holding property.... Trustees do not have the power to dedicate [sic] church policy." [The author of this section testified that the word "dedicate" was a typographical error and should have read "dictate."] Therefore, under the judicial deference approach, which is the analysis currently used by this Court, there was ample...