Ruling favors local church

In suit brought by diocese after St. James broke away, court says that church can keep its property.A judge sided with Newport Beach’s St. James Church and two other congregations Thursday in a ruling that the Episcopal Church of the United States had no claim to the church’s Lido Isle property.

“We’re just thanking God. It’s a big thing off our back,” St. James Senior Pastor Praveen Bunyan said. “We’re just glad the laws of the land were upheld in such a beautiful way.”

The ruling does not end the legal dispute. An appeal is in the works, and St. James has filed a countersuit of its own.

In his ruling, Orange County Superior Court Judge David Velasquez also wrote that the national Episcopal Church did not have standing to challenge the management and control of St. James and the other churches through a lawsuit.

The other two churches involved in the case were All Saints’ in Long Beach and St. David’s in North Hollywood. The three congregations left the national Episcopal Church due to the national church’s liberal positions.

“ ‘What do we truly embrace?’ is really the key question,” Bunyan said.

After leaving the national church and the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, the three congregations affiliated with the Anglican Diocese of Luwero in Uganda. The Los Angeles diocese sued the churches in September 2004, claiming that the individual congregations did not truly own church property.

As the case has played out in court, St. James and the other churches have won a series of victories. Velasquez dismissed the Los Angeles diocese’s case against St. James in August. In October, Velasquez dismissed the national Episcopal Church’s claims to St. James’ property, but gave the national church a chance to submit an amended argument.

In the ruling issued Thursday, Velasquez wrote that the national Episcopal Church did not add any legally material information to its claim. In his October ruling, Velasquez wrote that the national Episcopal Church’s claim relied on church rules, not the law.

“Somebody who doesn’t own property can’t confiscate somebody else’s property just because they pass a rule,” St. James attorney Eric Sohlgren said Thursday regarding the judge’s reasoning.

The Los Angeles diocese has already appealed Velasquez’s decision, diocese attorney John Shiner said. He said he plans to continue the diocese’s argument that it and the national church have a claim to church property.

“Our position, among other things, was that the property was held in trust,” Shiner said.

Shiner did not represent the national Episcopal Church and could not say if the national church planned future legal action. An attorney for the national church could not be reached Thursday.

Sohlgren anticipates the arguments made to the appeals court will be similar to those that have already been made.

“I’m not expecting any real surprises,” he said.

Besides the appeal, St. James’ countersuit has yet to be resolved. In June, St. James filed a breach of contract suit against the Los Angeles diocese. St. James alleged diocese officials made a written promise not to take St. James’ property.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at [email protected].

20060113i316mckfDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Praveen Bunyan, pastor of St. James Church, was happy with Thursday’s ruling, saying, “We’re just thanking God.”