The Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno has just issued an eleven-page opinion in which it grants the petition for review filed by Bishop John-David Schofield from the July 21, 2009 order of the trial court granting ECUSA's and Bishop Lamb's motion for summary adjudication. The appellate court has ordered the trial court to vacate (erase) its previous order, and to deny the plaintiffs' motion.
The ground upon which the reversal is ordered is that the case as presented by the plaintiffs Lamb and ECUSA in their first cause of action is not properly decidable by the secular courts without their becoming too entangled in First Amendment issues, such as who is the proper Bishop of San Joaquin. It holds that ECUSA's recognition of Bishop Lamb is conclusive as to his position as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, and to the continuity of that entity "for ecclesiastical purposes", but it goes on to hold that the validity of the transfers of title to diocesan property by Bishop Schofield while he was still the Episcopal Bishop will have to be decided upon neutral principles of state corporate law, and also any relevant governing documents of the Diocese and the national Church.
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