South Carolina Court on Remand Vindicates Bishop Lawrence and His Parishes
by A S Haley, Anglican Curmudgeon:
At 8:39 a.m. EDT this morning, South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Edgar Dickson filed his long-awaited decision on remand in the drawn-out dispute between Bishop Lawrence and the (now) Anglican Diocese of South Carolina vs. the Episcopal Church (USA) and its diocese (created to replace that of Bishop Lawrence when the latter voted to withdraw from ECUSA).
The decision is a full and clear vindication of all of the arguments made by Bishop Lawrence and his parishes, with the exception of those concerning trademarks, insignia and intellectual property (which Judge Dickson held were governed by federal trademark law). Making factual findings as to each of thirty-six individual parishes, Judge Dickson ruled (1) following the still-controlling decision of the South Carolina Supreme Court in All Saints Waccamaw, ECUSA’s Dennis Canon by itself does not create or impose a legally binding trust on any church property in South Carolina; (2) none of the thirty-six parishes ever expressly acceded to the Dennis Canon in any written document; and (3) Bishop Lawrence’s Diocese did not lose its status as beneficiary of the Camp Christopher Trust when it exercised its legal right to disassociate from ECUSA (again following another holding of the Waccamaw case).
Judge Dickson does an excellent job of laying out these conclusions at the close of his Order:
See also: Diocese of South Carolina statement following court victory today, from Anglican Ink: Today’s ruling determined that the disassociated parishes are, “affirmed as the title owners in fee simple absolute of their respective parish real properties.” TEC’s arguments that the Dennis Canon alone, or the Canon in conjunction with various pledges of allegiance and the like were sufficient to create a trust under South Carolina law were rejected…. This affirms that those congregations that followed state non-profit guidelines for their disassociation from TEC retain all their real and personal property.
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