272 Pa. 453 | Pa. | 1922
Opinion by
In 1856 Jacob Eshleman and wife gave a deed to Martin Bradley and Solomon Cyphert, Jr., trustees of the Methodist Protestant Church, for a described plat of one hundred and fifty-six perches of land in Limestone Township, Clarion County, in trust for the church. About that time a log church building was erected thereon, which was later replaced by a frame building and each in its turn used as a house of worship by a local un
This lot has also been used continuously as a cemetery since 1852, and the remains of from sixty to one hundred persons are. there interrred, the graves being scattered over the lot, except where the church building stood. There is no other cemetery within three or four miles and some, not affiliated with this congregation, have buried their dead there by permission of the church trustees, who have ever been and are in charge of the cemetery.
We find nothing in the record that calls for a reversal. Section 1 of the Act of 1913, supra, provides: “That when any individual church shall become inactive or extinct, by reason of there being no resident or active trustees representing it, or otherwise, the court of common pleas of the county wherein said church is located may appoint as trustees of said church the trustees of the state body or organization representative of the denomination of which said church was a member, to hold and dispose of the title to the property of said church”; and section 2 provides, inter alia, that, “upon full hearing of the matter [the court] shall make such order in the case as shall be most likely to preserve the property of said church, in the interests of the denomi
The members constitute the individual church, which does not cease to be, merely by loss of the meetinghouse, and the provision in the church constitution, that a church shall be regarded as extinct when there are not sufficient members to fill the offices, has no application here because there are more than sufficient members for that purpose.
The findings, to which we have referred, justified the dismissal of the petition; moreover, the dedication and use of the lot as a cemetery was conclusively established, and neither the original Act of 1913, nor the amendment of May 17, 1921, P. L. 861, makes provision for the appointment of trustees to hold and dispose of the title to cemetery property; hence, the court has thereunder no such right, whatever its power may be to appoint trustees for other church property. Except as provided by statute, land dedicated for and used as a burying ground cannot be sold: Brown v. Lutheran Church, 23 Pa. 495; Gumbert’s App., 110 Pa. 496; Chew v. First Presbyterian Church, 237 Fed. 219.
The assignments of error are overruled and the order is affirmed at the cost of appellants.