C.A. Reverses Ruling Giving Local [Presb.] Churches Control of Property

Monday, February 1, 2010
By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer

The Third District Court of Appeal on Friday reversed a ruling allowing two Sacramento-area Presbyterian churches to take their property with them as they left the national church.

The court held in an unpublished opinion that the trust in which the local churches held property for the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. could only be revoked by amending the national church’s constitution, not through amendments to the local churches’ articles of incorporation.

The First Presbyterian Church of Roseville and Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church sued the national church in March 2007 to quiet title in the property shortly before voting to leave and affiliate with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Placer Superior Court Commissioner Margaret Wells granted the local churches summary judgment, ruling that they revoked any trust in which property was held for the national church by amending their articles of incorporation. the rest