News (Page 102)

News (Page 102)

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.

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…

Diocese of San Joaquin seeks return of property held by breakaway congregation

By Pat McCaughan, February 10, 2010 [Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin went back to court Feb. 8 in an attempt to regain parish property held by a breakaway congregation, according to a diocesan press release. “Unfortunately, such litigation became necessary after the invitations of the diocesan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb, to discuss the orderly return of the Churches were largely ignored,” according to the Feb. 10 release. “It is particularly disappointing given the recent…

Judge orders property returned to Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 01, 2010 [Episcopal News Service]  A judge has told the organization headed by former bishop Robert Duncan that claims to have withdrawn from the Episcopal Church in 2008 that it must turn over control of the Diocese of Pittsburgh‘s assets. In a Jan. 29 order County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph M. James accepted as accurate an inventory of diocesan property submitted by a “special master” he had appointed earlier and told Duncan’s organization…