A.S. Haley: The Law Inches Forward in Fort Worth

Friday, October 2, 2009

To understand the significance of the rulings today, you might first want to review two earlier posts explaining what has happened up to this point: here and here. Here is the official post from the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Judge Chupp in Fort Worth had three motions before him today. The first was a motion by the defendants Bishop Iker and his co-trustees of the Diocesan Corporation to continue (postpone) the court's hearing of the plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment (without having a trial) on the first claim in its complaint: asking the court to declare that Bishop Iker and his co-trustees were replaced on the Board of the Diocesan Corporation by the "Special Convention" held on February 7, 2009. The court GRANTED this motion and continued the hearing from October 15, 2009 to January 22, 2010 to give time for discovery concerning the issues.

The second motion asked Judge Chupp to reconsider the order he signed at the end of the Rule 12 hearing on September 16. This order declared that the plaintiffs' attorneys could not represent Bishop Iker's Diocese or its Corporation, but refused to strike the pleadings they had filed on behalf of those same entities. The Court DECLINED to revise its Order.

The third motion was to grant Bishop Iker et al. leave to file a third-party complaint joining Bishop Gulick and the persons elected as the "Standing Committee" in February as defendants, and to make them prove that they were lawfully elected to their positions. The Court GRANTED this motion. the rest