BETHEL AME CHURCH OF NEWBERRY, FLORIDA, ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
JEROME DOMINGO, ET AL., APPELLEES
PER CURIAM.
In this church schism case, the trial court erroneously entered summary judgment for appellees/defendants, the withdrawing members of Bethel AME Church of Newberry, concluding that they were the rightful owners of the church property. The principle of church structure which governs church property disputes, as articulated in the controlling case of Mills v. Baldwin, 362 So. 2d 2 (Fla.1978), vacated on other grounds, 443 U.S. 914, 99 S.Ct. 3105, 61 L.Ed.2d 878 (1979), reinstated on remand, 377 So. 2d 971 (Fla.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 983, 100 S.Ct. 2964, 64 L.Ed.2d 839 (1980), requires that church property remain with the parent church where, as here, the church is hierarchical in structure. Given the trial court’s finding that the AME Church is hierarchical, judgment should have been entered in favor of appellants/plaintiffs as representatives of the original church.
Accordingly, we reverse the appealed order and direct entry of judgment in favor of the appellants.
MINER, WEBSTER and BENTON, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
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The NEW Jerusalem Church OF GOD, Inc. v. Sneads Cmty. Church, Inc., 147 So. 3d 25 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013)…Inc., is a hierarchical church. Upon determining, as a matter of law, that NJC, Inc., is a hierarchical church, it would follow then that NJC, Inc., controls the property of its local affiliates. See Bethel AME Church of Newberry, Fla. v. Domingo, 654 So. 2d 233 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995) (holding that Mills requires that church property remain with the parent church where the church is hierarchical in structure). While this is the general rule in Florida, this rule does not end our inquiry. To simply conclude tha…
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First United Methodist Church of Hobe Sound v. The Bd. of Trs. of the Fla. Annual Conf. of the United Methodist Church, Inc. (Fla. 1st DCA 2026)…t Florida has made the decision to apply the deference to church authority approach when resolving church property disputes.'") (quoting Townsend v. Teagle, 467 So. 2d 772, 775 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985)); Bethel AME Church of Newberry, Florida v. Domingo, 654 So. 2d 233, 234 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995) (“The principle of church structure which governs church property disputes, as articulated in [Mills I], requires that church property remain with the parent church where, as here, the church is hierarchical in structure.");…
Authorities Cited
- Morgan Guar. Tr. Co. of N.Y. v. Rinier, 446 U.S. 983 (U.S. 1980)
- Hall v. Alabama, 446 U.S. 983 (U.S. 1980)
- Mills v. Baldwin, 362 So. 2d 2 (Fla. 1978)
- Harrington v. United States, 443 U.S. 914 (U.S. 1979)
- Baldwin v. Mills, 443 U.S. 914 (U.S. 1979)
- Mills v. Baldwin, 377 So. 2d 971 (Fla. 1979)
- In re Rule 1.080, 377 So. 2d 971 (Fla. 1979)