News (Page 102)
California Appeals Court Recognizes Episcopal Church’s Determinations in San Joaquin Litigation
On November 18, 2010, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fifth Appellate District, issued its long-awaited opinion on the appeal from the partial judgment rendered in the dispute between the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and its former bishop. The decision strongly affirms the position of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth in its pending litigation with its former bishop and other former diocesan officials. A copy of the opinion and a news release from the Episcopal…
Episcopal Parishes and Missions Join Diocesan Litigation
On Friday, November 12, 2010, ten continuing Episcopal parishes and 38 continuing missions of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth were added as parties to the diocesan litigation pending in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County in Fort Worth. Bishop C. Wallis Ohl filed an amended petition on behalf of the 38 diocesan missions; parishes filed a plea in intervention through members of their vestries and/or clergy. View copies of the Individual Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amended Original Petition and the Original Plea in…
New Episcopal Filings Focus on the Merits
On October 18, 2010, The Episcopal Church and local Episcopal parties filed updated pleadings and motions for summary judgment in the case pending against former diocesan leaders in the 141st District Court, Tarrant County, Texas. [See detailed list here.] The Court has set a hearing on the motions for summary judgment for 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 14, 2011 in the courtroom of the 141st District Court. Texas. Rules of Court provide that the defendants’ responses must be filed seven days before…
Diocese files trademark suit in U. S. district court
On September 21, 2010 the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth against its former bishop, Jack Leo Iker, seeking damages and an injunction against his use of the name “Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth” and the diocesan seal, both continually in use by the Diocese since 1983. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Terry Means. Iker and others left The Episcopal Church in 2008 but continue to use the…
Iker Group Fails in Procedural Motion in Tarrant County Case
On September 14, 2010 the Southern Cone parties failed in their attempt to obtain a ruling that they, and not the Episcopal parties, were the continuing “Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth” and “Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.” The attorneys for former Bishop Jack Iker and other former diocesan leaders filed a “motion to correct style of case,” asking Judge John Chupp to drop the names of the Diocese and Corporation as plaintiffs and to identify Iker’s group…
New filings in Tarrant County District Court; Hood County case abated
Two significant actions have occurred in the litigation in which the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is involved. First, on August 13 and August 27, 2010, several amended pleadings were filed in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, in part to comply with the June 25, 2010 Court of Appeals decision. Second, on September 2, 2010, Judge Ralph H. Walton, Jr., judge of the 355th District Court of Hood County, granted the Episcopal parties’ second motion to abate [stop]…
Diocese and Episcopal Church filed a second amended petition
On August 13, 2010 The Episcopal Church and the Bishop, Standing Committee, Corporation Trustees, and Trustees for the Fund for the Endowment of the Episcopate filed a second amended petition, adding new parties to assert claims for declaratory relief against the Southern Cone officials, in their individual and official capacities, who still maintain possession and control of the real and personal property of the Diocese, Diocesan Corporation and Endowment Fund. As stated in earlier pleadings, church property accumulated in the…
Episcopalians reclaim St Anne’s church in the Diocese of San Diego
[U-T San Diego, OCEANSIDE] — The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego reclaimed its Oceanside church on Sunday with its first service since a conservative faction seized control of the building four years ago. “It’s like a homecoming,” church member Jack Plummer said Sunday as he stood outside St. Anne’s Episcopal Church. “In the Old Testament, you read about a time of jubilation, and it’s one of those times.” In 2006, a majority of the congregation at St. Anne’s voted to…
Second Court of Appeals issues opinion on procedural matters
The Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth issued an opinion late Friday, June 25, granting the Southern Cone parties’ petition for writ of mandamus regarding the order of the 141st District Court ruling on the Southern Cone parties’ Rule 12 motion. The Court’s decision said there is one Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and one Corporation of the Diocese of Fort Worth. The procedural ruling was based on Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 12 and expressly was not a…
Virginia Supreme Court Rules for Episcopal Church and Diocese of Virginia
The Supreme Court of Virginia issued an opinion on June 10, 2010 in favor of The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia. The decision addressed a dispute over the property of nine parishes whose leaders had left The Episcopal Church and had affiliated with the Anglican Province of Nigeria and its Convocation of Anglicans in North America (“CANA”). This decision turned on whether the specific dispute involving those parishes authorized those former Episcopalians to invoke the remedies of a…
Hearing in 355th District Court in Hood County
At a hearing on Wednesday, June 2, 2010, in the 355th District Court in Hood County, attorneys for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and attorneys for the Southern Cone entities presented arguments on several procedural matters in the case regarding St. Andrews Episcopal Church and the Cynthia Brants Trust. The Honorable Ralph H. Walton, Jr., ruled in favor of the Southern Cone entities on two matters and agreed to hear motions for summary judgment from both parties at the…
Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the mandamus proceeding
The Second Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the mandamus proceeding for the Tarrant County case on Tuesday, April 27. Both sides presented their statements with few questions from the panel of three judges. There is no deadline for the court to issue its ruling, which could come any time in the next few months. You can hear the entire proceeding here using the date April 27, 2010 and case number 02-09-405-CV.
Court of Appeals sets date for oral arguments on mandamus proceeding
The Court of Appeals has set oral argument on the mandamus proceeding for the Tarrant County Case for Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. Click here to read a copy of the order.
Court of Appeals has ordered oral arguments on petition for mandamus
The Court of Appeals has ordered oral argument on the petition for mandamus but has not yet set a date for that argument. When that information is available we will update the website.
Diocese files response in Court of Appeals regarding mandamus
A response was filed on March 3 in the Court of Appeals regarding the mandamus proceeding out of the Tarrant County case. Note that it includes in the appendix a copy of the summary judgment out of the San Angelo case. Click here to read the full text of the response.
U.S. Supreme Court denies petition to hear La Crescenta property case
[ Episcopal News, Los Angeles] The U.S. Supreme Court today announced that it has denied a petition to hear an appeal from a breakaway congregation seeking claim to the property of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of La Crescenta, California. The court posted its action, together with dozens of other petitions denied, on its web site. Meeting in conference on Feb. 26, the high court declined to hear the petition filed by St. Luke’s Anglican Church of La Crescenta, whose members voted…