Harlem Church of Seventh Day Adventists v. Greater New York Corp. of Seventh Day Adventists

145 Misc. 508, 260 N.Y.S. 517, 1932 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1617
New York Supreme Court·Decided July 1, 1932·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

McCook, J.

This is an action for specific performance of an alleged agreement made about the year 1915 between the parties. The plaintiff prays that , certain church premises situated at Nos. 144-146 West One Hundred and Thirty-first street be impressed with a trust and a lien and that the defendants be enjoined from interfering with the plaintiff’s possession. The answer denies the creation of any trust and raises a question as to the identity of the plaintiff.

During the summer of 1910 one James K. Humphrey, an ordained minister of defendant denomination, was active in organizing colored persons for religious purposes under the supervision of the Seventh Day Adventists. He conducted large and successful meetings in a tent and collected money. On October 10, 1910, Mr. Humphrey contracted to purchase church premises at No. 184 West One Hundred and Thirty-fifth street. He took title to the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth street church in his own name within a few days. On February 8, 1911, a certificate of incorporation of the Harlem Church of Seventh Day Adventists (which occupied the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth street church) was filed in the office of the county clerk of New York county. Five months later a deed was executed by Humphrey to the Harlem Church of Seventh Day Adventists and recorded on July 24, 1911. [510] The next day a certificate of incorporation of the defendant Greater New York Corporation of Seventh Day Adventists was filed. ■These premises continued to be occupied by the Harlem Seventh Day Adventist Church and were used for the customary church purposes. Various contributions were made from 1911 to 1915 by the plaintiff congregation to the denomination at large. A petition was filed on December 29, 1915, for leave to convey the premises to the defendant Greater New York Corporation of Seventh Day Adventists, and a deed was recorded on January 8, 1916, after the entry of an appropriate court order. About six months later another church was bought by the defendant corporation on One Hundred and Thirty-first street because it was found that the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth street building was no longer suited to the purposes of the congregation. The One Hundred and Thirty-fifth street premises were afterwards sold. Mr. Humphrey throughout these and the next twelve years acted as the minister of the congregation at both locations, and also represented it in the conference. Under his leadership it increased in numbers and contributions.

Prior to 1929 we have no evidence of serious disagreement. In that year Humphrey and the elders of the defendant conference met to discuss their relations. The defendant conference had indicated its displeasure with respect to certain real estate ventures in New Jersey, aiming towards a religious and social center for colored people, which Humphrey had undertaken without the advice of the conference elders. Considering these acts an encroachment upon their authority, and otherwise improper, the conference requested Humphrey to desist. He refused and was supported in his refusal by the great majority of the members of the congregation. In August, 1929, Mr. Humphrey ceased to act as minister of the defendant to the congregation, which claimed that he had been wrongfully suspended. The defendant conference maintains that he left the fold and was, therefore, properly unfrocked, and that by supporting him in his rebellion ” the congregation u seceded from the. denomination. The following month the contributions of the congregation to the denomination. were discontinued, and on November 2, 1929, its other relations with the defendant conference were terminated. A mandamus instituted to reinstate Humphrey was denied on December 5, 1929, and an injunction restraining the defendants from evicting the plaintiff congregation was granted on July 16, 1930.

At the outset I can do no better than repeat the words of Sand-ford, Assistant Vice-Chancellor, taken from his very able and exhaustive opinion in the leading case of Kniskern v. Lutheran [511] Churches of St. John’s and St. Peter’s (1 Sandf. 439, 499 [1844]): Before entering upon the points of difference between the parties in this unhappy controversy, I will state briefly the history of the churches in question and advert to the principles on which courts of equity exercise their jurisdiction in such cases.” First. The Adventists are a Protestant sect which had its beginnings in or about the year 1844. Their basic tenet is a belief in the near personal return of Christ. The Seventh Day Adventists add as fundamental doctrines the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, the communicability of the prophetic gift at the present day, the duty of paying tithes and the prohibition against alcoholic liquors, tobacco and narcotics, etc. In 1926 there were in the United States 2,576 Adventists churches with a membership of 146,177, and in New York city sixteen churches of Seventh Day Adventists with a membership of 2,601. Compared to certain leading religious orders of the world this denomination is small, and its teachings and doctrines are not a matter of general knowledge. It becomes necessary, therefore, to look as far as available “ to the written declarations in the constitution, by-laws, and written documents of the organization to ascertain the trust and the purpose for which the property was conveyed.” (Fuchs v. Meisel, 102 Mich. 357, 369.)

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Harlem Church of Seventh Day Adventists v. Greater New York Corp. of Seventh Day Adventists, 145 Misc. 508, 260 N.Y.S. 517, 1932 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1617 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1932).

145 Misc. 508 (Harlem Church of Seventh Day Adventists v. Greater New York Corp. of Seventh Day Adventists) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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