“Colonial is a Missouri church, and Heartland is a Missouri Presbytery. The Supreme Court of Missouri has adopted the neutral principles approach in deciding how disputes between local churches and national churches should be resolved, and, since we have two Missouri religious organizations before the court, that is the approach that governs.”

The Missouri Court of Appeals (Western District) has upheld a lower court’s decision that will allow a 1,700-member congregation to keep its property following its 2010 departure from the Presbyterian Church (USA).

In its opinion – filed June 26 – the court said that it applied Missouri law and affirmed the lower court’s ruling that Colonial Presbyterian Church of Kansas City, Mo., is the legal owner of all church property, valued at just over $15 million.

Heartland Presbytery had appealed a July 10 summary judgment filed in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mo., by Judge Justine E. Del Muro, which recognized Colonial as the legal owner of the church property, despite Heartland’s claim that according to the denomination’s constitution, a trust existed between the church and the PCUSA.

Judges Karen King Mitchell, Victor C. Howard and Mark D. Pfeiffer said that “under the neutral principles approach, the disputed property was never conveyed in trust, and therefore title remains in Colonial. The situs of the parties’ relationship is Missouri, and therefore Missouri law applies to how that relationship is governed. Accordingly, the trial court’s judgment is affirmed.”

The judges noted that “Colonial is the sole titleholder of all of the property that is disputed in this lawsuit. All of the relevant acts of conveyance list Colonial, and only Colonial, as the grantee. Colonial never signed any deed purporting to grant (or convey in trust) the disputed property to the national church or Heartland.”

In its appeal, Heartland argued that lower court was wrong since Colonial’s articles of incorporation and bylaws, along with the denomination’s constitution, created a trust in the national church’s favor with respect to the disputed property.

In 1983, the denomination added a property trust clause to the PCUSA’s constitution that stated “All property held by or for a particular church, a presbytery, a synod, the General Assembly, or the Presbyterian Church (USA) … is held in trust nevertheless for the use and benefit of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”

The three judges disagreed with the presbytery’s argument, saying, “Under Missouri law, the national church’s constitution was insufficient to convey the disputed property in express trust because the alleged settler – Colonial – did not sign it … Heartland concedes that Colonial never signed the national church’s constitution, and therefore the constitution did not create an express trust over the disputed property.”

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