A.S. Haley: Appellate Court Stays Proceedings in Ft. Worth

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Court of Appeals for the Second District in Fort Worth, Texas has issued an order staying all further proceedings in the trial court in Tarrant County between Bishop Edward Gulick's rump "diocese" of Fort Worth and ECUSA, on the one side, and Bishop Jack L. Iker and his co-trustees of the Diocesan Corporation of Fort Worth on the other side. The order (which has been posted at the Diocese's Website) comes in response to a petition for writ of mandate filed by Bishop Iker's attorneys (copy also downloadable from the previous link), following the order signed by Judge Chupp after the oral arguments I described in this post, followed by this post, and then this one. Although by no means a definitive indication of the Court of Appeal's sentiments in this matter, the order recites the following basis for its issuance:

The court has considered relators' [Bishop Iker et al.] petition for writ of mandamus and motion for stay and is of the tentative opinion that relators are entitled to relief or that a serious question concerning the relief requires further consideration.

This cannot be good news for the ECUSA forces. If you recall, they have been trying the "Potemkin Plan" strategy in the trial court, with only moderate success thus far. the rest

Appellate Court order (pdf)
Petition for Writ of Mandamus (pdf)