Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church of Fruitland, Inc. v. Board of Incorporators of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Inc.

BELL, Chief Judge.

This appeal arose out of a dispute between a local church and the religious hierarchy with which it had been affiliated for more than one hundred years. The dispute concerns ownership of real property titled in the name of the trustees of the local church, and the question presented for our resolution is whether the trustees and the local congregation lost the rights given them by the deed of the property and confirmed by the Religious Corporations Law 1 and the corporate char ter, to own, use and control that property, when the pastor, trustees, officers, and a majority of…