Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises, Inc. v. State
Decision Date | 05 October 1977 |
Docket Number | No. 12589,12589 |
Citation | 556 S.W.2d 856 |
Parties | ROLOFF EVANGELISTIC ENTERPRISES, INC., et al., Appellants, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Clyde J. Jackson, Jr., Alsup & Alsup, Corpus Christi, Fred P. Benco and David C. Gibbs, Jr., Parma Heights, Ohio, for appellants.
John L. Hill, Atty. Gen., M. Lynn Taylor, Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, for appellee.
This appeal presents the question of whether child care homes operated by appellants, admittedly religious in nature, are subject to the provision of the Child Care Licensing Act, Article 695a-3, Vernon's Civil Statutes, effective January 1, 1976.
At the outset of trial, the court granted the State's motion for summary judgment ordering appellants to secure licenses to operate its three child care homes and to admit agents of the Texas State Department of Public Welfare for the purposes of inspection. The court's order, in essence, requires permanent compliance with the Child Care Licensing Act.
This appeal presents, essentially, three questions. The first is whether or not there were any disputed fact situations that would have precluded the trial court from entering summary judgment; the second is whether appellants' constitutional rights to the free exercise of religion are abrogated in any way by the Act; and the third is whether the trial court was correct in overruling the plea of privilege of appellant Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises wherein it asserted its right to be sued in one of the three counties in which a children's home is located.
There is no dispute but that the State made a prima facie case under Article 695a-3, Section 23 of the Child Care Licensing Act. This Act requires three essential elements of a cause of action: "Any person . . . who operates a facility without a license or certification as required under this Act" is subject to certain enumerated penalties.
Thus, it became incumbent upon appellants to assert some affirmative defense against the enforcement of the Act which they attempted to do by alleging the Act to be unconstitutional as applied to them.
To state appellants' position here, we quote from their brief:
"Reverend Roloff has testified, for example, that he objects to State control over the children in his ministry:
At the hearing on summary judgment, the trial court, in an overabundance of caution, asked appellants to list the fact issues they considered to be questions for a jury. Appellants then stated the first issue, or fact question, was whether appellants' enterprises are operated pursuant to legitimate biblical convictions of Lester Roloff; the second, whether the aforesaid convictions are legitimate and truly held and consistently practiced by Lester Roloff and those participating in the ministries of the enterprises; the third, whether the aforesaid convictions are consistently practiced and have been the life style and the basis of all actions at the homes and ministries of the enterprises; the fourth, whether the aforesaid convictions are totally based on biblical teachings and practices dating back to the historic record of the Old Testament, have been truly held and practiced by large numbers of Christian believers through the ages to the present; the fifth, whether the Child Care Licensing Act and the minimum standards promulgated thereunder violate the aforesaid convictions when applied; the sixth, whether all of the compelling interests of the State can be adequately carried into effect and duly protected through the reasonable implementation of other State laws.
The court correctly assessed numbers 5 and 6 to be questions of law and the remainder of the alleged questions of fact were there and then agreed to by the State. Consequently, there was nothing left for the court but to apply the applicable law to the undisputed facts. "Moore" Burger, Inc. v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 492 S.W.2d 934 (Tex.1972); Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. McBride, 159 Tex. 442, 322 S.W.2d 492 (1958); Torres v. Western Casualty & Surety Co., 457 S.W.2d 50 (Tex.1970).
Given the facts described above, the gist of appellants' case then becomes whether the control over children's homes vested in the State Department of Public Welfare as set forth in Article 695a-3 impinges on appellants' free exercise of religion guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Even though appellant Roloff and other witnesses for appellants earnestly and vehemently assert that such a conflict exists and further, that the facts of such conflict should be put to a jury, we hold that the testimony is nothing more than a bald conclusion entirely unsupported by any factual evidence from which a jury could draw a differing conclusion.
Thus we do not reach the cases...
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State v. DeLaBruere
...of their religious beliefs. See State v. Andrews, 65 Haw. 289, 291-92, 651 P.2d 473, 475 (1982); Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises v. State, 556 S.W.2d 856, 858 (Tex.Civ.App.1977). We agree there are gaps in defendants' evidence on the nature of the burden. Putting their evidence in the best ......
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State, Michigan Dept. of Social Services v. Emmanuel Baptist Preschool
...several decisions, with varying analyses, from other jurisdictions support this conclusion. See Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises, Inc. v. State, 556 S.W.2d 856 (Tex.Civ.App.1977), app. dis. 439 U.S. 803, 99 S.Ct. 58, 58 L.Ed.2d 96 (1978), reh. den. 439 U.S. 998, 99 S.Ct. 601, 58 L.Ed.2d 672 ......
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Attorney General v. Bailey
...State has a compelling interest which justifies burdening religious practice. These are issues of law. Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises v. State, 556 S.W.2d 856, 858 (Tex.Civ.App.1977). We believe that the application of G.L. c. 72, § 2, to the Grace Bible Church Christian School has only an......
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CORPUS CHRISTI, ETC. v. Tex. Dept. of Human Resources
...a license. The Texas Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the lower court's ruling. Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises, Inc. v. The State of Texas, 556 S.W.2d 856 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin, 1977, writ ref'd n. r. e.). The Supreme Court of Texas refused appellant's writ of error, finding no reversible er......