The Indiana Supreme Court remanded the case of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation against its presbytery and synod back to a trial court and established Indiana as a “neutral principles of law” state.

In the case of the Presbytery of Ohio Valley and the Synod of Lincoln Trails of the Presbyterian Church (USA) vs. Olivet Presbyterian Church of Evansville, Inc., the court ruled 3-2 that neither party was entitled to a summary judgment in the case, because “Genuine issues of disputed fact, resulting from varying inferences possible from the designated evidence, must be resolved at trial rather than on summary judgment.”

Those issues include the presbytery’s claim to an implied trust, since “reasonable inferences are possible and thus produce a genuine issue of material fact regarding the requisite unequivocal intent of Olivet to create a trust.” The ruling affirmed that the congregation did not create an express trust in favor of the PCUSA.

Forrest Norman, chair of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and one of the attorneys who filed an amicus brief for the Lay Committee on behalf of the congregation said that he was “very pleased with the well-reasoned nature of the opinion.”

The court noted several “relevant” facts:

• “The Olivet congregation first joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1900.
• “In 1906, Olivet became a member of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) when it merged with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
• “In 1968, Olivet purchased the property and built the church building that is the subject of dispute in this case.
• “The property was conveyed by warranty deed to ‘Olivet Presbyterian Church of Evansville, Indiana,’ and has at all relevant times been titled and recorded as the property of Olivet.
• “The real estate and church building were acquired entirely with monies donated to or borrowed by Olivet.
• “The presbytery, and its associated plaintiff, contributed no monies to the purchase of the real estate.”

Neutral principles of law

The court’s decision established Indiana as a “neutral principles of law” state.“Because the neutral-principles-of-law approach permits greater fairness, consistency, and equality of application to all church property disputes regard-less of the structure of the denominational church organization, we adopt the neutral-principles-of-law approach for settling property disputes between religious organizations in Indiana,” the decision read.

According to A Guide to Church Property Law: Second Edition, by general editor Lloyd Lunceford, “states that choose to follow the neutral principles of law method for resolving church property disputes are to look not only to the denominational constitution and other governing rules of the general church (including any express trusts clauses), but also are to look to the text of local property deeds, articles of incorporation of the local church, relevant state statutes or code provisions affecting property matters, and other actions of the parties that may reflect intent.”

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