A.S. Haley: Fresno Court Affirms Its Denial of Motion to Consolidate

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Fresno Superior Court, which had issued a tentative ruling denying the motion to consolidate nine separate cases against individual San Joaquin parishes into one court, has now adopted that ruling as its final decision on the matter. Pending further moves by the rump diocese and its bishop, the nine cases will continue to remain before the courts of six different counties -- Kern (3 cases), Tuolumne, Fresno, Stanislaus, Tulare (2 cases), and San Joaquin. The rump diocese brought the suits in an attempt to hasten its planned takeover of all of the property and assets of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin and its parishes. The strategy thus far, however, has served only to multiply its already stretched litigation budget many times over, and to burden its attorneys with keeping up with motions and status conferences spread all over the southern half of the State. The denial of the motion to consolidate means that, for the time being, at least, the rump diocese and its attorneys will have to lie in the bed they have made for themselves.

The Fresno Court's ruling offered an interesting take on the claims the rump diocese was seeking to advance in their complaints against the individual parishes. the rest