'141st District Court' Tagged Posts (Page 2)
Court severs February 8, 2011 Order for Appeal
On February 8, 2011, the Honorable Judge John P. Chupp affirmed that the loyal Episcopal parties recognized by The Episcopal Church are the legally entitled representatives of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and its historic churches. On April 5, 2011, the Court severed its February 8, 2011 Order, allowing the parties to appeal that part of the case, while staying (or postponing) the remaining issues. This ruling enables the Fort Worth Court of Appeals to review the trial court’s…
Local Episcopal Parties File New Pleadings and Supplemental Motion for Partial Summary Judgment
On March 31, 2011 the Local Episcopal Parties filed amended pleadings in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, Texas. The pleadings (1) add a new defendant, Jude Funding, Inc., and (2) seek supplemental declarations and injunctive relief consistent with the Court’s February 8, 2011 partial summary judgment. A more detailed list of the requested relief is in the “Relief Requested” sections of (1) Local Episcopal Plaintiffs’ Seventh Amended Original Petition and (2) the Fifth Amended Answers and Counterclaims to the…
Statement on 3/31/11 Hearing before Judge John P. Chupp
On March 31, 2011 Judge John P. Chupp heard arguments on the Southern Cone Parties’ Motion to Sever and Stay Proceedings. The judge declined to rule from the bench and announced that he wanted to review new filings before ruling. The Southern Cone Parties argued that the Judge should sever out the claims addressed in the partial summary judgment granted on February 8, 2011 for an immediate appeal and stop all further action in the case. In their Response to…
Bishop Wallis Ohl outlines plans for the continuing diocese
In an affidavit signed March 21, Bishop Ohl describes current planning to develop and continue the mission of The Episcopal Church in the 55 congregations of the diocese, stating that a “central element of this plan is for reconciliation with the many worshipers who will return to or remain in the pews.” Click here to read his affidavit.
Local Parties file motion to compel
On March 25, 2011 the Local Episcopal Parties filed a motion to compel discovery from the Southern Cone parties. Click here to read a copy of the motion. A date for a hearing on the motion has not yet been set. In other legal news, the parties have filed an agreement to preserve documents relating to the diocesan case pending in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, Texas. The written agreement, signed by counsel of record and filed with the clerk pursuant…
Amended Order Entered on Motions for Summary Judgment
After a hearing on February 8, 2011, the Hon. John P. Chupp, judge of the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, entered an amended order affirming his rulings on January 21, 2011 in a form agreed to by all the parties. A copy of the order is below. Amended Order on Church and Local Episcopal Parties’ Motion for Summary Judgment 020811 The order reaffirms that the court grants the motions for summary judgment filed by the Episcopal Parties (Episcopal…
Judge Grants Episcopal Parties’ Motions for Summary Judgment, Orders Surrender of Diocesan Property
On Friday, January 21, 2011, the Hon. John P. Chupp of the 141st District Court, Tarrant County, Texas, granted the Local Episcopal Parties’ and The Episcopal Church’s Motions for Summary Judgments. He denied the Southern Cone parties Motion for a Partial Summary Judgment. The orders can be seen here. The Court orders provide in part that the defendants, including Bishop Jack L. Iker, “surrender all Diocesan property, as well as control of the Diocesan Corporation, to the Diocesan plaintiffs and to…
Summary Judgment hearings held
On Friday, January 14, 2011, the Hon. John P. Chupp of the 141st District Court of Tarrant County considered the motions for summary judgment in the dispute between the Episcopal parties and the Southern Cone parties, former members of the Episcopal Church. Competing motions for summary judgment are filed by the Episcopal Parties [The Episcopal Church, the Local Episcopal Parties (officials of the continuing diocese), and Episcopal Congregations (continuing parishes and missions and officials)] and the Southern Cone Parties (individuals…
Episcopal Parties Make Final Filings in Preparation for January 14 Hearings
On Tuesday, January 11, 2011, in preparation for the upcoming hearings in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, the Episcopal Parties filed various responses and objections to the filings of the Southern Cone parties. The following motions are set for hearing on Friday, January 14: Episcopal and Southern Cone competing motions for summary judgment, Episcopal Congregations’ motion for continuance, Bishop Ohl’s motion to compel production of documents, and Episcopal Rule 12 motions challenging the authority of the attorneys for…
Parties File Summary Judgment Responses in Diocesan Litigation
On January 7, 2011 the Episcopal Parties filed responses to the motion for partial summary judgment filed by the faction of former Episcopalians led by former Bishop Jack Iker. The responses, filed in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, were filed by The Episcopal Church, the Local Episcopal Parties (Bishop Ohl and other individual diocesan officials), and Episcopal Congregations (Episcopal parishes and missions, with clergy and vestry members from those congregations). These responses are in preparation for the summary…
Episcopalians Challenge Authority of Attorneys for Breakaway Factions
The Episcopal parties filed motions in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County to challenge the authority of the attorneys for the break-away Southern Cone factions. The motions seek to strike the pleadings of these attorneys who claim to represent the historic Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and historic entities of the diocese. The motions state two grounds for declaring that the attorneys are not authorized to represent the entities they claim to represent: First, the breakaway-faction attorneys lack authority…
Bishop Ohl Files Motion to Compel Southern Cone Faction to Produce Property Ownership Records
On Thursday, December 16, 2010, counsel for Bishop C. Wallis Ohl filed a motion to compel the Southern Cone faction’s production of documents related to ownership of diocesan and parish property in the case pending before Judge John P. Chupp, presiding judge of the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, Texas. On November 9, 2010, Bishop Ohl had requested that the Southern Cone faction produce all documents showing descriptions of and any ownership interests in the properties that the Southern…
Judge John P. Chupp Disposes of Motion to Disclose Potential Conflicts
On Thursday, December 9, 2010, the Hon. John P. Chupp, judge of the 141st District Court, disposed of the latest procedural motion filed by attorneys for former Bishop Jack L. Iker and other former diocesan officials. After waiting 18 months, the Defendants had filed a Motion for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts, asking that the judge “fully disclose on the record whether he, his family members, or his court staff: are members of any of the churches, congregations, schools or other…
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…
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]…