King v. African Methodist Episcopal Church, Inc.

PITTMAN, Judge.

This appeal, taken by six former trustees of a congregation of a hierarchical national church entity, concerns the validity of a purported transfer of ownership of real property that has been utilized by the local congregation in fellowship with that larger entity for a number of decades.

In July 2011, The African Methodist Episcopal Church, Inc. (“the national church corporation”), a nonprofit corporation based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, brought a civil action in the Bullock Circuit Court against Tommy King, Jr., Timothy M. Tarver, Annie Ellison, Jessie Lee Hill, Ulysses…