252 Pa. 91 | Pa. | 1916
Opinion by
In this action of trespass, the plaintiff in this case sought to recover damages from the defendants for their conduct in wrongfully expelling him from his office of trustee in the Grant Street Reformed Presbyterian church, and from membership in said church. Defendants demurred to plaintiff’s statement of claim upon the ground that the alleged cause of action was exclusively within the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical tribunal which acted upon it, and the civil court was without jurisdiction; further, that no civil or property rights were involved. The court below sustained the demurrer. It is apparent that the real question at issue here, is plaintiff’s title to the office of trustee. It is his exclusion from that office, of which he chiefly complains. If he was rightly excluded, he has no case. He must stand or fall, as his right to that office may be determined.
Another phase of this same controversy was before
The true principle is, that the decree of a church judicatory is binding upon the civil courts, “only when it is affirmatively shown that it has acted within the scope of its authority and has observed its own organic forms and rules”: Kerr’s App., 89 Pa. 97. As illustrating the principle involved, in this last case, Gordon, J., said (p. 112) : “No longer ago than November last, in the case of Kopp, et al., v. The Minister, et al., of the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran church of Butler, we sustained the action of the court below in granting a mandamus to restore the plaintiffs to their corporate rights as members of that church. This was on the ground that the congregation had not adhered to its own organic laws in the trial and expulsion of these men. No doubt they were guilty of the offense charged; no doubt their conduct towards the church and its officers were disrespectful and contumaceous, but no matter, they were not properly tried, and they must be restored, if but for the purpose of trial.” The same rule is applied to nonreligious voluntary societies: Com. v. Philanthropic Society, 5 Binn. 486; Franklin Beneficial As
Not because of any lack of jurisdiction to inquire whether the church court acted within the limits of its authority, and observed its own prescribed forms and rules of procedure, should the demurrer have been sustained by the court below. For inquiry of this nature and. to this extent, the courts of Pennsylvania have ample jurisdiction. But because in this case the plaintiff has overlooked his statutory remedy, and has employed the wrong procedure for testing his rights, and for determining the real question in controversy, which is his right to the office of trustee, and to membership in the church, the judgment must be affirmed.