No break in pace of Episcopal Church lawsuits: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 6.

Bishop Iker being served with legal papers by a Texas constable in 2009

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The summer months have seen no break in the Episcopal Church’s legal wars, with new lawsuits, appeals and victories for both sides in the litigation over parish and diocesan property.

On July 6, the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin filed suit against the rector, vestry and parish of St Paul’s Anglican Church in Visalia, California.  A congregation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, St. Paul’s along with a majority of the diocese withdrew from the Episcopal Church in 2007 and affiliated with the Province of the Southern Cone.

The St Paul’s litigation joins a growing list of parish lawsuits funded by the national Episcopal Church and initiated by loyalist faction in San Joaquin.  Suits against lay leaders and parish corporations are pending against St Francis Anglican Church in Turlock; St Michael’s Anglican Church in Ridgecrest; St John’s Anglican Church in Porterville, James Anglican Church in Sonora; Holy Redeemer Anglican Church in Delano; and St Columba’s Anglican Church in Fresno.

Canon lawyer Alan Halley noted the diocese appeared to have adopted a legal strategy of financial attrition.  By adding the parish vestry and clergy as defendants in the lawsuits, the diocese was engaged in a “particularly nefarious attempt to force the defendants to waste money on the litigation.”

In California, each named defendant must pay an “appearance fee” of $355 to the court when a response is filed to a complaint, he noted.  In the case of St Francis in Turlock, for the rector and ten members of the vestry to respond fully “will cost the parish of St. Francis a cool $3,905 in court filing fees, to say nothing of the legal fees that will be incurred.”

Diocesan chancellor Michael Glass told the Episcopal News Service the litigation was necessary after the parish refused Bishop Jerry Lamb’s request that they turn over their property to him.

Mr. Glass said the diocese would not initially seek monetary judgments against vestry members “unless it becomes evident that such defendants have diverted parish assets to other purposes or parties.”

Parishes have fared badly this month in their attempts to secede from diocesan control, while diocesan moves to quit the Episcopal Church have seen legal wins.  In Georgia, Christ Church in Savannah, the church of John Wesley and George Whitfield, filed an appeal on July 28 with the state supreme court seeking review of a July 8 appellate decision that found in favor of the diocese.  In Tennessee, St Andrews Church in Nashville filed an appeal in June against a lower court ruling that held the national church’s property canons control parish property, even when the property is held by a trust independent of the diocese.

However, the Diocese of Fort Worth under Bishop Jack Iker secured a second victory against the loyalist faction backed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, when a Texas county court on July 14 granted three motions blocking attempts to seize the income of a trust bequeathed to a congregation loyal to Bishop Iker.

Hood County Texas Judge Ralph Walton found that Bishop C. Wallis Ohl, leader of the loyalist faction had no “legal interest” in funds belonging to St Andrews Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, and barred Bishop Ohl’s attorneys from calling themselves the attorneys for the “Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.”