Kicinko v. Petruska

Citations

• 259 Pa. 1
• 102 A. 286
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 506

Syllabus

<p>Church law — Church property — Dedication to certain purposes— Piversion — Equity—Injunction—Judgment in prior suit — lies adjudicata — Estoppel.</p> <p>1. The estoppel of a judgment extends only to a question directly involved in the issue and not to any incidental or collateral matter however it may have arisen and been passed upon.</p> <p>2. A decree in equity determining the right of a congregation to discharge a rector, under a contract which he had violated, does not bar a subsequent suit between members of the same congregation relating to the control of the church property, and it is not material that certain findings in the prior suit are not consistent with certain findings in the second suit, where the questions involved in such findings were merely incidental to the main questions at issue.</p> <p>3. A congregation was incorporated in 1901 for the purpose of maintaining a place of worship according to the faith, doctrine, discipline, government and forms of the United Greek Catholic Church. Until 1914 the congregation adhered to the faith and practiced the ritual of the United Greek Catholic Church. In 1914 the congregation employed a priest who belonged to the Orthodox Greek Catholic Church and who began to preach the dogmas and perform the ceremonies of such denomination, so that a large number of the members forsook the charter purposes of the congregation, and practiced in the church the worship and forms of the Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, excluding from the church premises those who adhered to the United Greek Catholic Church. A suit had been brought against this Greek Catholic Church and prosecuted to judgment, involving the right of the congregation to discharge its priest for violation of contract. In a suit in equity .brought by the members of the congregation who adhered to the United Greek Catholic Church to enjoin the members in control from using the church property for the practice of the worship and forms of the Orthodox Greek Catho