Irvine v. Elliott

Citations

• 206 Pa. 152
• 55 A. 859
• 1903 Pa. LEXIS 666

Syllabus

<p>Church law — Trial in church court — Reveiw—Conspiracy.</p> <p>The civil courts will not review the proceedings of ecclesiastical courts on matters which come within the jurisdiction of the latter.</p> <p>A priest of.the Protestant Episcopal Church cannot hold the bishop of his diocese and a member of his congregation liable in damages in an action of trespass for an alleged wilful and malicious conspiracy, where the evidence shows that the defendants combined to make charges against the priest of conduct unbecoming a clergyman, and supported these charges with evidence in a trial in an ecclesiastical court, which resulted in the degradation of the priest from the ministry; and this is the case although the acts of the defendants may have to some extent been iuflueneed by vindictiveness and hatred.</p>