Erickson

The membership of plaintiff in defendant Gospel Foundation of California was cancelled by vote of the members, and he brought this action for declaratory relief to determine the validity of the cancellation. Plaintiff joined as defendants Mary Liddecoat and Norman E. Johnson, who are both members and directors of the Foundation, Selma C. Abnot, who was elected a member and director in plaintiff's place, and Walter E. Webb, the general manager. He has appealed from a judgment declaring that his membership was validly cancelled and annulled.

The Foundation is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1946 under the laws of California. Its purpose is to foster, promote and operate religious, charitable, evangelistic and mission enterprises, and members are required to subscribe to a doctrinal statement which consists of tenets of a solely religious nature.

The authorized number of members of the Foundation is the same as the number of directors, which is fixed at three, and the personnel of the membership and directorship is identical. No member is to obtain any pecuniary gain or profit, and in the event of dissolution the property of the Foundation is not to go to the…

The membership of plaintiff in defendant Gospel Foundation of California was cancelled by vote of the members, and he brought this action for declaratory relief to determine the validity of the cancellation. Plaintiff joined as defendants Mary Liddecoat and Norman E. Johnson, who are both members and directors of the Foundation, Selma C. Abnot, who was elected a member and director in plaintiff’s place, and Walter E. Webb, the general manager. He has appealed from a judgment declaring that his membership was validly cancelled and annulled.

The Foundation is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1946 under the laws of California. Its purpose is to foster, promote and operate religious, charitable, evangelistic and mission enterprises, and members are required to subscribe to a doctrinal statement which consists of tenets of a solely religious nature.

The authorized number of members of the Foundation is the same as the number of directors, which is fixed at three, and the personnel of the membership and directorship is identical. No member is to obtain any pecuniary gain or profit, and in the event of dissolution the property of the Foundation is not to go to the members but to…

I dissent.

I agree with the holding that the giving of unequal voting rights in a nonprofit corporation is authorized by the California corporation law statutes and cannot, therefore, be declared to be against public policy, and also that A. M. Johnson’s declaration of intention does not affect the present controversy. But I think this court should hold that a member of such a corporation .may not be removed as such without cause or hearing. The by-laws here involved, while seemingly authorizing such, should be interpreted to mean that cause and hearing are required.

*589 While it is true nonprofit corporations may make provision for the cancellation of memberships (Corp. Code, §§ 9402, 9608), yet those provisions are subject to the general rules with respect to the expulsion of members from unincorporated associations as summarized by this court in Cason v. Glass Bottle Blowers Assn., 37 Cal.2d 134, 143 [ 231 P.2d 6 ] : “In cases of this type we must strive both to protect the rights of individual members and to avoid impairing the right of the union to govern itself. The courts will interfere with the decision of an association expelling one of its members if the rules of the…