SHARPE
v.
BONHAM
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
Members of a religious society seeking to establish that church property should be held in trust for a consolidated Presbyterian denomination brought suit against the opposing faction and three trustees holding legal title to the property. The Supreme Court held that the trustees, as mere title holders whose control was disputed between the parties, were properly made defendants rather than aligned with the complainants, and reversed the lower court's dismissal for lack of jurisdiction.
© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Memorandum opinion , by direction of the court.
By Mr. Justice Hughes. The suit was brought by members of a religious society in Nashville, Tennessee, known as Grace Church, citizens of States other than Tennessee, against the pastor and elders of another religious society calling itself Grace Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and also against three individuals described as trustees, who hold the legal title to certain land and a house of worship, all the defendants being citizens of Tennessee. The controversy grew out of the proceedings to consolidate the Cumberland Presbyterian Church with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. It was alleged in the bill that the union had been legally effected, and the complainants sought decree that the church property be declared to be held in trust for the congregation which adhered to the alleged united body.
The defendants, other than the trustees, filed a plea to the jurisdiction, alleging that the trustees, “who are alleged to hold the. legal title of the property described and involved, are indispensable parties complainant, and yet, as these defendants aver, those persons are improperly and eollusively joined as defendants for the purpose of creating a case cognizable in this honorable court;” and it was also asserted that parties had been improperly and eollusively omitted for the same purpose. The court dismissed the bill, and in its certificate states that the dismissal was upon the ground that the three defendants, trustees, were not antagonistic to the compláinants, and should be aligned upon, the same side of the controversy; and, therefore, as some of the complainants and some of the defendants were citizens of the same State, the court was without jurisdiction.
The case is not to be distinguished from Helm v. Zarecor, 222 U. S. 32. There the controversy arising from the same proceedings, having in view the union of the two religious bodies, related to the property and management of an incorporated committee of publication, or publishing agency, known as the Board of Publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was held that to align the corporation itself with the complainants was virtually to decide the merits in their favor; that the corporation was simply a title holder — an instrumentality, the mastery of which was in dispute; and that it was properly made a party defendant.
As, in that case, the controversy embraced the fundamental question of the rights of the religious associations, said to be represented by the respective parties, to control the corporate agency and to have the benefit in their denominational work of the corporate property, so here the controversy is with respect to the control of the church property which the three trustees hold in trust. These trustees were not indispensable parties complainant as alleged in the plea, and, as mere title holders, they were properly made parties defendant. The court erred in aligning them with the complainants.
Decree reversed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Green v. Brophy, 110 F.2d 539 (D.C. Cir. 1940)…dispensable parties to that litigation were representatives of the two rival factions, while trustees of the property in question were characterized as merely nominal parties. Helm v. Zarecor, 222 U.S. 32, 32 S.Ct. 10, 56 L.Ed. 77; Sharpe v. Bonham, 224 U.S. 241, 32 S.Ct. 420, 56 L.Ed. 747; Helm v. Zarecor, D.C., 213 F. 648; Sharp v. Bonham, D.C., 213 F. 660, 661. Plaintiff has argued that on a motion to dismiss, the allegations of a complaint are to be taken as true and, since they allege the nonexistence…
-
Minnis v. S. PAC. Co., 98 F.2d 913 (9th Cir. 1938)…. 70; Anderson v. Watt, 138 U.S. 694, 701, 11 S.Ct. 449, 34 L.Ed. 1078; Florida Central & Peninsular R. R. Co. v. Bell, 176 U.S. 321, 332, 20 S.Ct. 399, 44 L.Ed. 486; Raphael v. Trask, 194 U.S. 272, 276, 24 S.Ct. 647, 48 L.Ed. 973; Sharpe v. Bonham, 224 U.S. 241, 32 S.Ct. 420, 56 L.Ed. 747; Lee v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co., 267 U.S. 542, 45 S.Ct. 385, 69 L.Ed. 782; Mitchell v. Maurer, supra; Matthew v. Coppin, 9 Cir., 32 F. 2d 100; Dollar Steamship Lines v. Merz, 9 Cir., 68 F. 2d 594. If the operating company…
-
Hazeltine Research Corp. v. Freed-Eisemann Radio Corp. (E.D.N.Y. 1924)…less of the places they occupy in the pleadings as plaintiffs or defendants, in order to retain jurisdiction. Gage v. Riverside Trust Co. (C. C.) 156 F. 1002; Helm v.Zarecor, 222 U. S. 32, 32 S. Ct. 10, 56 L. Ed. 77; Sharpe v. Bonham, 224 U. S. 242, 32 S. Ct. 420, 56 L. Ed. 747. It is plain, however, that each one of the plaintiffs In the second group have identical interests, if they have any interest, in this suit, and hence this court cannot distinguish between any one of this group of plaintiffs, but mu…
Authorities Cited
- Helm v. Zarecor, 222 U.S. 32 (U.S. 1911)