Episcopal Church wins San Diego property case

Tuesday, 17th March 2009
By George Conger

The California Supreme Court has backed the Episcopal Church and a local diocese against a breakaway San Diego congregation in a closely watched church property case. On March 11, the Court dismissed the petition for appeal of St John’s Fallbrook, upholding the appellate court’s ruling in the case of New v. Kroeger that a vestry may not vote to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church and continue to control over the church property.

“This is a very important decision in favour of the Episcopal Church,” the chancellor of the Diocese of San Diego, Charles Dick, said in a prepared statement as “it vindicates our position that the actions of the dissident congregation were extralegal and in excess of their legal authority.” On Oct 21, the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed a judgment by a San Diego County trial court, which held that California law permitted a vestry to amend parish bylaws in order to quit the Episcopal Church. Using the “neutral principles” approach, which looks only to the property deeds and legal charters, the trial court permitted St John’s Fallbrook to amend its bylaws to remove its accession to the canons of the Episcopal Church. the rest