Woodland Grove Baptist Church v. Cemetery

• Decision Date: 28 April 2006
• Docket Number: 1040679.
• Citation: 947 So.2d 1031
• Parties: WOODLAND GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH v. WOODLAND GROVE COMMUNITY CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, INC.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

947 So.2d 1031

WOODLAND GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH v. WOODLAND GROVE COMMUNITY CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, INC.

1040679.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

April 28, 2006.

Rehearing Denied July 21, 2006.

Chriss H. Doss of Chriss H. Doss & Associates, P.C., Birmingham, for appellant.

Debbie Lindsey Jared and Charles Matthew Brunson of Jared & Brunson, Elba, for appellee.

SEE, Justice.

The Woodland Grove Baptist Church ("the Church") appeals from the trial court's judgment quieting title to the Woodland Grove Community Cemetery in the Woodland Grove Community Cemetery Association, Inc. We reverse the trial court's judgment and render a judgment for the Church.

Facts

The Woodland Grove Community Cemetery ("the cemetery") is located in Coffee County. The Woodland Grove Baptist Church was constituted on August 7, 1855, and was incorporated on August 13, 2002. For more than 150 years, the cemetery has been a community cemetery; both members of the Church and nonmembers are buried in the cemetery. The cemetery has been maintained by the Church since the Church was established in 1855, holding "work days" to clean both the Church grounds and the cemetery. Both members of the Church and nonmembers have participated in these "work days."

On March 9, 1947, Pearl B. Moseley was elected to be the Church clerk. While acting as the Church clerk, Moseley established the Woodland Grove Cemetery Fund ("the fund"). Donations for the purpose of maintaining the cemetery were deposited in the fund, and, among other things, the fund was used to pay Church members to maintain the cemetery. The fund was established using the Church's tax-identification number. In addition to managing the fund, Moseley managed the affairs of the cemetery and acted as the contact person for those who were arranging a burial there. When Moseley retired, Julia Brooks was elected to the position of Church clerk.¹ Brooks performed the same duties that Moseley had previously performed, including the management of the cemetery and the fund.

In 2000, the Church erected a new structure adjacent to the cemetery; the new structure interferes with access to the cemetery. Because access to the cemetery had become restricted, in the spring of 2001, a group of individuals whose relatives were buried in the cemetery became concerned about the security and continued existence of the cemetery. This group of individuals formed the Woodland Grove Community Cemetery Association, Inc. ("the Association"), which was incorporated on December 14, 2001. Some of the members of the Association belong to the Church, but others do not. Brooks, who had resigned from her position as Church clerk in April 2001, was one of the incorporators of the Association. Shortly after the Association was formed, Brooks went to the bank and changed the name on the account constituting the fund from the "Woodland Grove Cemetery Fund" to the "Woodland Grove Community Cemetery Association, Inc." She testified at trial that she had consulted members of the Association before making the change but that in changing the name on the account she had acted unilaterally; no one from the Church had authorized the name change.

In March 2002, the Association petitioned the Coffee County Probate Court for the appointment of a commission to locate and mark the boundaries of and plat and survey the cemetery pursuant to § 11-17-1, Ala.Code 1975.² In April 2002, the Church sued the Association in the Coffee Circuit Court seeking to quiet title to the property on which the cemetery is located ("the cemetery property") under § 6-6-540, Ala.Code 1975.³

In April 2003, the Association moved the probate court to remove to the circuit court its petition for a boundary commission. The probate court granted the Association's motion. However, in June 2003, the circuit court ordered that the petition be returned to the probate court because, it reasoned, the Alabama Code contains no provisions providing for the transfer of a petition filed pursuant to § 11-17-1, Ala. Code 1975.⁴ The probate court stayed action on the Association's petition for a boundary commission pending the circuit court's adjudication of the Church's action to quiet-title.

In January 2005, the circuit court in the Church's quiet-title action found that the Association held superior title to the cemetery property. The Church appeals.

Standard of Review

In an action to quiet title, when the trial court hears evidence ore tenus, its judgment will be upheld unless it is palpably wrong or manifestly unjust. Mid-State Homes, Inc. v. King, 287 Ala. 180, 249 So.2d 836 (1971); and Webb v. Griffin, 243 Ala. 468, 10 So.2d 458 (1942). However, the presumption of correctness does not attach to a trial court's conclusions of law. Cullman Wholesale, Inc. v. Simmons, 592 So.2d 1031, 1034-35 (Ala.1992); Gaston v. Ames, 514 So.2d 877, 878 (Ala. 1987); Smith v. Style Adver., Inc., 470 So.2d 1194 (Ala.1985); and League v. McDonald, 355 So.2d 695 (Ala.1978).

Analysis

"The purpose of [an action to quiet title] is not to invest the court with jurisdiction to sell or dispose of the title to the land, but merely to determine and settle [title] as between the [plaintiff] and the defendants." Dake v. Inglis, 239 Ala. 241, 243, 194 So. 673, 674 (1940) (citing Grayson v. Muckleroy, 220 Ala. 182, 124 So. 217 (1929); and Venable v. Turner, 236 Ala. 483, 183 So. 644 (1938)). This Court has applied a burden-shifting analysis to actions to quiet title under § 6-6-540, Ala. Code 1975:

"Under a statutory bill to quiet title, where it is shown that [the plaintiff] is in peaceable possession of the land, either actual or constructive, at the time of the filing of the bill and that there was no suit pending to test the validity of the title, a prima facie case is made out, entitling the [plaintiff] to relief, and the burden is then upon [the defendant] to establish his claim to the land. When the [defendant] shows legal title to the land, the burden of avoiding it by showing superior title by adverse possession (or by a better paper title) shifts to the [plaintiff]."

Wiggins v. Stapleton Baptist Church, 282 Ala. 255, 257, 210 So.2d 814, 816-17 (1968) (citing Stewart v. Childress, 269 Ala. 87, 92, 111 So.2d 8 (1959); and Webb v. King, 268 Ala. 282, 105 So.2d 653 (1958)).⁵ See also Machen v. Wilder, 283 Ala. 205, 208, 215 So.2d 282, 284 (1968) ("In a statutory suit to quiet title, a prima facie case is made where it is shown that the [plaintiff] is in the peaceful possession of the land, either actual or constructive at the time of the filing of the bill and that there was no suit pending to test the validity of title, and the burden is then upon the [defendant] to establish his claim to the land.... But when the [defendant] shows legal title to the land, the burden of avoiding it by showing superior title by adverse possession shifts to the [plaintiff].").

In order for the trial court to hear the Church's quiet-title action, (1) the Church must have alleged in its complaint that it was in peaceable possession of the cemetery property, and (2) the trial court must have found that the Church showed that it was in peaceable, rather than scrambling, possession of the cemetery property. For the trial court to then conclude, as it did, that the Association held superior title to the cemetery property, it must have found (3) that the Association established legal title to the cemetery property, and (4) that after the burden shifted the Church was not able to show that its title was superior to that of the Association. Wiggins, 282 Ala. at 257, 210 So.2d at 816-17.⁶ The Church contends that the trial court improperly concluded that the Association's claim to the cemetery property was superior to its claim. We agree; the trial court did err.

I. The Church alleged that it was in actual peaceable possession of the cemetery property

The plaintiff in a quiet-title action must allege in its complaint that it is in actual or constructive peaceable possession of the property to which it is seeking to quiet title.⁷ City of Montgomery v Brown, 285 Ala. 64, 228 So.2d 820 (1969); and Donohoo v. Smith, 207 Ala. 296, 92 So. 455 (1922). In this case, the Church alleged in its complaint that

"Woodland Grove Baptist Church, either as a religious association and/or by and through its Trustees, ... hold[s] title to and/or [has] been in actual peaceful possession of land on which a cemetery sits, in whole or in part, for more than thirty (30) continuous years prior to the filing of this lawsuit."

Thus, the Church satisfied the first requirement for going forward with a quiet-title action.

II. The Church showed it was in peaceable possession of the cemetery property

The trial court has jurisdiction over quiet-title actions in which the plaintiff shows that he or she is in peaceable, rather than scrambling, possession of the property. Orso v. Cater, 272 Ala. 657, 661, 133 So.2d 864, 868 (1961) ("It is true that the [plaintiff] cannot recover under the statute unless his proof shows his peaceable possession, as contradistinguished from a contested, disputed or scrambling possession."); Hinds v. Federal Land Bank, 237 Ala. 218, 219, 186 So. 153, 154 (1939) ("a scrambling, disputed, or contested possession will not support [a quiet-title] action"); and Buchmann Abstract & Inv. Co. v. Roberts, 213 Ala. 520, 521, 105 So. 675, 676 (1925) ("we are constrained to hold that the possessory acts herein indicated on the part of respondent were sufficient as a contest of complainant's possession so as to destroy the peaceable character thereof and constitute it a disputed, contested or scrambling one.... This conclusion destroys the jurisdiction of the court over the cause at its very threshold, and renders unnecessary a consideration of the questions which constitute any of the issues as to the contest of title."). The plaintiff in a quiet-title action must present evidence to support "a peaceable possession in the [plaintiff]...