Trustees of Presbytery of Jersey City v. Trustees of First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken

• Decision Date: 15 December 1910
• Citation: 78 A. 207,80 N.J.L. 572
• Parties: TRUSTEES OF PRESBYTERY OF JERSEY CITY v. TRUSTEES OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF WEEHAWKEN et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

78 A. 207

80 N.J.L. 572

TRUSTEES OF PRESBYTERY OF JERSEY CITY

v. TRUSTEES OF FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF WEEHAWKEN et al.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Dec. 15, 1910.

Syllabus by the Court.

Action by the Trustees of the Presbytery of Jersey City against the Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken and others. Judgment for plaintiff.

Argued June term, 1910, before GUMMERE, C. J., and TRENCHARD and MINTURN, JJ.

Dougal Herr, for plaintiff.

Albert Leuly and Horace L. Allen, for defendants.

TRENCHARD, J. This action in ejectment was brought to recover possession of certain lands with a church building thereon in Weehawken, N. J.

At the trial at the Hudson circuit, the cause was submitted to the court, sitting without a jury, upon agreed facts, and resulted in a special verdict, which was returned to this court, by the postea. The plaintiff now applies for judgment in its favor.

The special verdict was upon facts found as follows: "That service of process in this action was properly made and executed by a duly authorized deputy sheriff of Hudson county upon all of the defendants within named, and that all of said defendants are properly in court; that the Presbytery of Jersey City is a presbytery within the state of New Jersey and is connected with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; that the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America is the name used to designate the whole ecclesiastical body of protestant Christians in the United State of America of the Presbyterian denomination, and that the Presbytery of Jersey City is an ecclesiastical branch of that denomination having ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the various local churches of the said denomination in the county of Hudson and elsewhere in the state of New Jersey; that the plaintiff in this action is a corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of New Jersey, to wit, under and by virtue of the act of March 26, 1872, which is section 120 of the acts concerning religious associations, revisions of 1895 (3 Gen. St. p. 2759); that the said plaintiff corporation is composed of persons elected annually in accordance with said lastmentioned act, and in accordance with the laws of the state of New Jersey, by the Presbytery of Jersey City; and that the persons composing said plaintiff corporation are, both in an individual and in a corporate capacity, the trustees of the property and funds of the said Presbytery of Jersey City, and the trustees of the civil interests of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, in the locality over which the Presbytery of Jersey City has ecclesiastical jurisdiction; that the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, one of the defendants herein, is a religious corporation, duly incorporated and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of New Jersey, and was incorporated in the year 1870, under and by virtue of the act of June 12, 1799 (Paterson's Laws, p. 412); that in pursuance of the terms and provisions of said act of June 12, 1799, and of its certificate of incorporation, and of the constitution, laws, customs, rules, and mandates of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, the persons first composing the said defendant corporation, the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, were duly elected by the congregation of the said First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, and that their successors were duly elected from year to year by the said congregation, as provided by the law and by the constitution, rules, and mandates of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, as long as said congregation remained in existence; that the real property which is the subject of controversy in this suit of ejectment and which is described in the declaration herein, was vested in said defendant corporation, the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, in fee simple, by purchase, in the year 1871, subject only to the limitations, duties, and liabilities imposed upon said corporation, and upon the congregation and church therewith connected in respect of said property, by act of June 12, 1799, by its certificate of incorporation, and by the constitution, laws, customs, rules, and mandates of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; that there was at the time of the formation of said defendant corporation, the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, a certain congregation which was then and there connected with a particular local church, which local church and congregation were then and there subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Jersey City and of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; that the said defendant corporation, the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, held title to said property as aforesaid, under the provisions of said act of June 12, 1799, of its certificate of incorporation and of the constitution, laws, usages, customs, rules, and mandates of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, for the benefit of said congregation, and of said particular local church, to wit, the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, which local church and congregation were, as aforesaid, subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Jersey City and of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; that said real property which is the subject of this ejectment suit was the property of said particular local church and congregation, to wit, the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, subject to the limitations, duties, and liabilities aforesaid, the title thereto having been held by said defendant corporation, the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, and that the possession of the said property has continued to be up to the present time and now is in said defendant; that the title to said property still vests in said defendant unless the same has been divested by virtue of chapter 306 of the Laws of 1908 of New Jersey; that said Presbytery of Jersey City did on the twenty-first day of April, nineteen hundred and eight, pursuant to the constitution, laws, usages, customs, rules, and mandates of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, duly dissolve said congregation and church, to wit, the First Presbyterian Church of Weehawken, which was then and there a particular local church subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Presbytery of Jersey City; that the said statute of 1908, if constitutional, has operated to' vest the title to said real property in the said plaintiff corporation; but whether or not, upon the facts above found, the said statute of 1908 is or is not in conformity with the Constitution of the state of New Jersey the court is altogether unable to determine and thereupon prays the advice of the said Supreme Court; and if to the said Supreme Court it shall seem under the facts aforesaid that said statute of 1908 is constitutional, then the said plaintiff is entitled to judgment herein for possession of the said premises in said declaration mentioned; but if upon the whole matter aforesaid it shall seem to said Supreme Court that the said act is unconstitutional in its application to the facts hereinabove found, then and in that case this court has determined that the said defendants are entitled to judgment herein."

The act of April 16, 1908 (P. L. p. 623), being the statute in question, is as follows:

"An act relating to the real and personal property of dissolved particular local churches in the state connected with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

"Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the state of New Jersey:

"1. That whenever, pursuant to the constitution, laws, usages or customs of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, any presbytery in the state connected with the said Presbyterian Church in the United States of America has heretofore dissolved, or shall hereafter dissolve, any particular local church subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of such presbytery, the property, real and personal, of such particular local church, and of the congregation connected therewith, whether held by an incorporated board of trustees or otherwise, shall, upon such proceedings in dissolution, vest in the trustees of such presbytery (provided said trustees be incorporated), in as full and ample a manner as the same shall theretofore have been vested in the board of trustees or persons or body holding the same in trust for such particular local church and congregation, and said trustees of such presbytery may, under the direction of such presbytery, manage, sell, or otherwise freely dispose of the same, and shall apply the proceeds thereof, in such manner as to such presbytery may seem best for religious uses and purposes within the territory over which such presbytery shall have ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and in the event that such property shall be sold by the trustees of such presbytery, such sale or...