Episcopal Church Cases

Goodwin Procter, David Booth Beers, Heather H. Anderson, Jeffrey David Skinner and Matthew J. Wilshire for Intervener and Appellant The Episcopal Church.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Christopher J. Cox and Douglas E. Lumish for Clifton Kirkpatrick, Joey Mills, Katherine J. Runyeon, Rev. Joseph Lee, Elder John Lococo, General Council on Finance and Administration of the United Methodist Church, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists, Christian and Missionary Alliance, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and Worldwide Church of God as Amici Curiae on behalf of Intervener and Appellant The Episcopal Church.

Law Offices of Tony J. Tanke and Tony J. Tanke for Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Intervener and Appellant The Episcopal Church.

Payne & Fears, Eric C. Sohlgren, Benjamin A. Nix, Daniel F. Lula; Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland and Robert A. Olson for Defendants and Respondents Rev. Praveen Bunyan, Rev. Richard A. Menees, Rev. M. Kathleen Adams, The Rector, Wardens and Vestrymen of St. James Parish in Newport Beach, California, James Dale, Barbara Hettinga, Paul Stanley, Cal Trent,…

In this case, a local church has disaffiliated itself from a larger, general church with which it had been affiliated. Both the local church and the general church claim ownership of the local church building and the property on which the building stands. The parties have asked the courts of this state to resolve this dispute. When secular courts are asked to resolve an internal church dispute over property ownership, obvious dangers exist that *473 the courts will become impermissibly entangled with religion. Nevertheless, when called on to do so, secular courts must resolve such disputes. We granted review primarily to decide how the secular courts of this state should resolve disputes over church property.

State courts must not decide questions of religious doctrine; those are for the church to resolve. Accordingly, if resolution of the property dispute involves a doctrinal dispute, the court must defer to the position of the highest ecclesiastical authority that has decided the doctrinal point. But to the extent the court can resolve the property dispute without reference to church doctrine, it should use what the United States Supreme Court has called the “ ‘neutral…

I agree with the majority that the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (Episcopal Church) owns the property to which St. James Parish in Newport Beach (St. James Parish) has held title since 1950. This conclusion is compelled by Corporations Code section 9142, subdivision (c)(2). But I disagree with the majority that this provision, which applies only to religious corporations, reflects a “neutral principles of law” approach.

I

St. James Parish began in 1946 as a mission of the Episcopal Church. In 1949, it incorporated and became a parish of the Episcopal Church. Since 1950, the parish has held the deed to the property on which the parish’s church building stands. Ownership of the property is at issue here.

*494 In 1979, the Episcopal Church added section 4 to its Canon 1.7 to provide that all property held by any of its parishes is held in trust for the Episcopal Church. In 2004, St. James Parish ended its affiliation with the Episcopal Church, and it amended its articles of incorporation to delete any reference to the Episcopal Church.

Thereafter, the Episcopal Church, its Los Angeles Diocese, and a congregation member who voted against the decision…