Korean United Presbyterian Church v. Presbytery of the Pacific

Appeal by defendants and cross-complainants, bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), from a judgment (partial) of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in favor of plaintiff, cross-defendant and respondent, Korean United Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, the Honorable Dion G. Morrow, Judge presiding. Reversed.

I.

Introduction

On this appeal we are called upon to decide the central question of whether the trial court made its judgment awarding the subject church property to the Korean United Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, then controlled by a dissident faction of the Presbyterian congregation to the detriment of a contending “exiled” faction of the same congregation, without violating First Amendment proscriptions against governmental involvement in religious matters, by the use of “neutral principles of law.” An ancillary question to be decided is whether the acts of the dissident faction, which retained possession and control of the church premises while purporting to take governmental actions on behalf of the congregation after expulsion of the competing faction, are legally viable.

We conclude that the court could have and should have decided the case by…