Legal observers have noted that the tiny congregation’s victory may go down as a landmark decision in church-property law. The decision states that the PCUSA trust clause is not enforceable unless it complies with state trust law requirements and that any former PCUS churches that had claimed the exception clause in a timely manner has also negated the trust clause.

A Louisiana church won a decisive victory in its fight to keep its property after the state’s Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from a presbytery attempting to seize church property under a trust clause a lower court had earlier ruled invalid.

On Friday, the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously issued a writ refusing to hear an appeal by the Presbytery of South Louisiana of an earlier lawsuit filed against it by Carrollton Presbyterian Church.

Carrollton sued South Louisiana in 2008 following the presbytery’s attempt to take the congregation’s property under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s trust clause.

In 2009, the 19th Judicial District Court of Louisiana issued a declaratory judgment in favor of Carrollton and a permanent injunction barring South Louisiana from attempting to seize any of the church’s property.

The order also barred higher governing bodies of the PCUSA from doing anything that might attempt to remove control from Carrollton’s leaders with respect to property rights and from interfering with the normal duties of church officers, ministers and employees.

The decision may have far-reaching repercussions for other churches facing similar property battles that joined the PCUSA following the 1983 merger that created the denomination.

Organized in 1855, Carrollton belonged to the Presbyterian Church (US), the Southern stream of the Presbyterian Church that merged with the Northern stream in 1983.

At the time of the merger, Northern stream churches lived under a constitution that required them to obtain presbytery permission before buying, selling or otherwise encumbering their property. PCUS churches had no such constitutional requirement.

One of the conditions placed on the merger agreement was that former PCUS churches would be allowed a window of eight years within which to declare an exemption, opting out of the requirement that they obtain presbytery permission before disposing of their property.

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