The court was asked to look at the sharing of an income stream where a testator intended to benefit a number of voluntary churches.
Held: The court gave useful guidance as to options available when competing bodies were deemed still to be under the umbrella of the intention of the trust.
Lord President Inglis said: ‘. . Where two parties, in the position of those now before us, each claim exclusive right to the property of the religious association to which they both originally belonged it is sometimes impossible to decide the question of property so raised without inquiring which party has adhered to and which has departed from the doctrines and rules of the association. And the same occurs where a particular congregation, having separated itself from the rest of the body, claims to retain the buildings or other property occupied by the congregation, but held on titles permanently connecting the property with the society or church, and justifies its separation on the ground that the majority of the body have renounced or departed from the articles of belief or general laws which formed the bond of union. In such cases it must be observed that the claim is based on allegations of breach of contract, that the subject in dispute is matter of civil and patrimonial right, and that the court cannot decide that question of right without reading and interpreting the contract which imposes on the members adherence to particular doctrines, laws, or usages as conditions of membership of the association …’
Judges:
Lord Shand, Lord President Inglis
Citations:
(1879) 6 R 486
Cited by:
Cited – The Free Church of Scotland v The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland SCS 24-Mar-2005
Each group claimed to by the true Free Church of Scotland. The dispute had a very long history. One claimed that the other had abandoned a fundamental principle of the faith, the right of ‘continued protest’.
Held: It was necessary to examine . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Scotland, Trusts, Ecclesiastical
Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.223941
