63 How. Pr. 465 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1882
The First Presbyterian church of the village •of Dunkirk was incorporated under the laws providing for the incorporation of religious societies, in the year 1873. The ■corporation was formed by a Presbyterian society previously existing, and its object was to own, preserve and perpetuate the use of the property by the society' as a Presbyterian ■church. Its use continued in that manner until about the year 1880; then differences arose as to one or more of the .■articles of faith of the congregation, that resulted in a division ■of the society and the removal of the person at the time ■employed and officiating as its clergyman. The removal was made by the presbytery in which the society was included, ■and the deposed clergyman, together with his adherents, have ■since attended and conducted public worship, in accordance with their views, in another part of the city of Dunkirk. The members of the church and congregation who did not agree with the views of the deposed clergyman have, since this division in the society, been deprived by the board of trustees of the use of the church edifice, and the object, of the present
As the act of 1813 has been construed, the members of the congregation of a religious corporation were under its provisions left at liberty to divert the church property from the dissemination of the views of the persons acquiring it to that of any other view, whether religious or secular, which might be sanctioned and adopted by a voting majority of the con gregation (Robertson agt. Bullions, 1 Kernan, 243; Petty agt. Tooker, 21 N. Y., 267; Russell agt. Reformed Church, 44 Barb., 283).
This was an extreme construction of the terms in which the. carefully guarded act of 1813 was enacted, and by chapter 79 of the Laws of 1875 the legislature undertook its correction, and for that purpose provided and declared that the trustees of a religious society, incorporated under the act of 1813, should administer its temporalities and hold its property and revenues for the benefit of the corporation, according to the discipline, rules and usages of the denomination to which the corporation belongs (Laws 1875, p. 79, sec. 4).
This enactment was preserved and in terms extended by chapter 176 of the Laws of 1876. The plain purpose of these acts was to abrogate the rule which had grown out of the preceding construction given to the act of 1813, and to deprive the congregation as well as the trustees of the society of the power afterwards to divert the church property from the promotion and dissemination of the religious views of the persons obtaining and acquiring it to the promulgation and maintenance of any different systems of religious belief. Instead of holding the property subject, simply, to the disposition of the voting majority of the congregation, the trustees were henceforward required to hold and devote it to the uses and purposes of the denomination of Christians in which the society should be included that obtained and acquired it. Under these acts they became in fact as well as in name trustees of the religious corporation by whose members they should
These statutes do not appear to be liable to the objection that tney may be attended with the effect of depriving the corporate owners of the property without due process of law. That was no part of the scheme or purpose of these laws, and their observance cannot be attended with such a result. Their objection and intention was, on the contrary, to prevent the owners from being so deprived of the property which they have acquired, and to devote and confine it to the promotion of the views and purposes leading, to its acquisition. It was as manifestly unjust to allow persons becoming members of a religious society, formed for the purpose of inculcating particular views, by then* subsequent votes, to appropriate the property they might have done nothing to acquire to- the promotion of views of an entirely different character from those, entertained by the persons through whose contributions 'the property may have been obtained. This was a practical abuse which the Laws of 1875-6 were designed in the future to prevent, and they are required to be so construed as to carry that policy into.effect..
When the clergyman, officiating as such in this society, adopted and advocated religious views at variance with the Presbyterian articles of belief, he by force of these provisions of the statutes forfeited his right to use this church edifice for their dissemination. The trustees by their plain terms of the- acts were deprived of the authority to allow the church property- to be afterwards so- used by him, for it was made their duty to hold it subject to-the rules and usages of the denomination of which this society was- a member, and that precluded its devotion to the inculcation of any system
After that the persons whom the law will regard or recognize as the society, and to the inculcation of whose views the corporate property is to be devoted, are those who are engaged in maintaining and promoting the views of the denomination in whose name and interests the church property was acquired. They remain the legally organized religious society protected by the law, and entitled to enjoy and occupy the property of the corporation. For this purpose, under the rules and usages of the denomination, a majority of such persons entitled to vote may by petition request the session to convene
By section 6 of chapter 79 of the Laws of 1875, the jurisdiction of courts of equity was so far extended over religious corporations as that might be necessary to enforce the recent provisions of the legislation already mentioned. The application now made is consequently within the limits of this authority, and as the right is found to exist, it seems to follow that the trustees must be so far enjoined by the order of the court as to prevent them from closing the church edifice to
Which of the views involved in this controversy' may abstractly appear to be the most entitled to support, is not a question with which a court of justice has anything to do in an application of this nature. Its power and authority are proprietary in their nature. It is simply required to ascertain what may be the law of the case, and when that is ascertained to enforce it, irrespective of the religious views of either of the contestants. Upon this subject there appears to be no serious ground for doubt, and to the extent already indicated, an injunction will be allowed restraining and controlling the conduct of these trustees in the use of this church property.