Presbytery of Beaver-Butler v. Middlesex Presbyterian Church

How courts have described this case

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

• holding that disputes concerning ownership and control of church property “are questions of civil law and are not predicated on any religious doctrine”
• holding that courts should apply the neutral principles of corporation law that would be applied to nonreligious organizations to resolve a property dispute between a church and its central denomination
• noting that the National Presbyterian Church's Book of Order did not prohibit a local church from disaffiliating from the national church
• noting that the National Presbyterian Church's Book of Order did not prohibit a local church from disaffiliating from the national church
• holding that in cases where the resolution of a property dispute between members of a religious association involves no inquiry into ecclesiastical questions, courts of the Commonwealth are to apply the same principles of law as would apply to nonreligious associations
• holding that in cases where the resolution of a property dispute between members of a religious association involves no inquiry into ecclesiastical questions, courts of the Commonwealth are to apply the same principles of law as would apply to nonreligious associations

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).