Trs. of the Organ Meeting-House v. Seaford

• Decision Date: 31 December 1830
• Citation: 16 N.C. 453
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: TRUSTEES OF THE ORGAN MEETING-HOUSE v. WILLIAM SEAFORD ET AL.

16 N.C. 453

TRUSTEES OF THE ORGAN MEETING-HOUSE

v.WILLIAM SEAFORD ET AL.

SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA AT RALEIGH

DECEMBER TERM, 1830

A court of equity will not, upon a dispute respecting the title to church property, decide a religious controversy between its members.

From ROWAN. The bill charged that in 1786 one Lutric Seffret executed a deed of conveyance, for a valuable consideration, "to the elders and trustees, and their successors in office, of the Lutheran Congregation belonging to the Second Creek Organ Meeting-House," for a tract of land on which a meeting-house was afterwards erected; that under the said conveyance the predecessors of the plaintiffs had entered and enjoyed peaceable and uninterrupted possession of the premises, for the purpose of divine worship according to the Lutheran form, until 1820, when a part of the members composing the Lutheran Church adopted a general synod, a form of church government previously unknown to the Lutheran Church; that the defendants, in 1820, were elected elders, deacons, and trustees of the Organ Church, in the belief that they would faithfully adhere to the form of church governmentestablished by their ancestors; that in violation of the trust reposed in them, the defendants had sent delegates to the general synod, and had excluded from the meeting-house several clergymen regularly ordained according to the Lutheran form, and also the plaintiffs and those by whom they were appointed, all of whom adhered to the old form of church government; that in 1826 the plaintiffs were duly elected and ordained as trustees, elders, and deacons, by a constitutional number of those adhering to the primitive church. The prayer for relief was general.

A copy of the deed was filed as an exhibit. It conveyed the land in dispute, for the consideration of ?, to "the trustees and elders, and their successors in office, for the Lutheran Congregation belonging to the Second Creek Organ Meeting-House," but was absolute upon its face, not specifying any particular purpose to which the premises were to be appropriated.

The answer denied that the plaintiffs had been duly elected elders and trustees of the Organ Church Congregation, and alleged that at the time of this pretended election the defendants were acting trustees and elders of the church, and that the plaintiffs, and those whom they represented, constituted a very small minority of the members. These allegations were fully supported by the testimony.

HALL, J. It...