Ofa v. Tongan Wesleyan Church

The plaintiffs were lately members of the defendant Tongan Wesleyan Church of American Samoa, hereinafter the "Church," They have recently separated from the Church and have filed suit essentially seeking a liquidated share of the Church’s assets accumulated to date to aid in their setting up another religious institution to be administered more to their own liking. The evidence does not disclose a "schism," as the term is used in ecclesiastical circles;1 rather, the falling out is attributable to matters more in the nature of the mundane and temporal order --- fiscal policy. The disaffection…