Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church v. Dyer

California Court of Appeal Dec 17, 1931 No. Docket No. 4445.Published

Before: Plummer

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Holding. The court affirmed the judgment canceling the defendant's employment contract as pastor, holding that the trial court's findings regarding the defendant's loss of ministerial standing and his subsequent abandonment of his duties were sufficient to support the judgment.

Issues

Whether the trial court had jurisdiction to make findings regarding the defendant's ecclesiastical standing and employment status.
Whether the trial court's findings were sufficient to support the judgment canceling the employment contract.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“It having been heretofore held and established as the law in this case that the trial court had jurisdiction to make the findings which we have quoted, which findings are amply sufficient to support the judgment, and as they do not involve any ecclesiastical determinations, it necessarily follows that the judgment of the trial court must be affirmed.”

PLUMMER, J.

The plaintiff had judgment in an action to cancel a contract of employment of the defendant as pastor of the above-named church, from which judgment the defendant appeals.

The record shows that pursuant to a vote of the members of said church the plaintiff and defendant, on the twenty-eighth day of July, 1925, entered into an agreement whereby the plaintiff retained the services of the defendant as pastor of the Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church, for the period of ten years succeeding, at a salary of $7,500 per year. The complaint sets forth a number of grounds for the cancellation of the agreement just mentioned, and also that the board of trustees of the plaintiff, prior to the beginning of this action, passed a resolution purporting to cancel said agreement and to dispense with the services of the defendant as pastor of said church. The prayer of the complaint is to the effect that if said resolution be held ineffective, that the agreement be canceled for the reasons set forth therein. A supplemental and amended complaint was also filed in the action setting forth additional grounds for the cancellation of the agreement.

The action is brought to us upon the judgment-roll alone and if any of the findings of the trial court are sufficient

[298]

to sustain the judgment, our inquiry is at an end. This is true even though some of the findings may be subject to the objections urged by the appellant that the facts found are solely and exclusively within the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical authorities. We do not need to cite authorities to support the statement that where an appeal is from the judgment-roll alone, it will be presumed that the testimony sufficiently supports the findings of the trial court.

This cause was before the appellate court in and for the Second Appellate District where practically all the questions necessary for our consideration in the determination of this case were passed upon, and after being decided, hearing in the Supreme Court was denied. (See opinion in the case of

Dyer

Superior Court,

Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church v. Dyer

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PLUMMER, J.

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