California Supreme Court· 1/5/2009

Episcopal Church Cases

Citations

45 Cal. 4th 467
198 P.3d 66
87 Cal. Rptr. 3d 275
2009 Cal. LEXIS 1

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

finding “superior religious body or general church” may unilaterally create trusts in its favor over property held by member churches due to a statutory amendment by the state legislature permitting it
refusing to consider whether the National Episcopal Church effectively adopted the Dennis Canon because courts must defer to the national church’s resolution regarding issues of religious doctrine and internal church governance
adopting neutral principles approach, but finding for the denominational church in part because the documents at issue “show[ed] that the local church agreed and intended to be part of a larger entity and to be bound by the rules and governing documents of that greater entity”
“Moreover, [the Dennis Canon] is consistent with earlier-enacted canons that, although not using the word ‘trust,’ impose substantial limitations on the local parish’s use of church property and give the higher church authorities substantial authority over that property.”
conc. & dis. opn. of Kennard, J.
trust relationship “had long been implicit”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Chin, Kennard

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Cited by

95 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

33 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

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