Colonial Presbyterian Church v. Heartland Presbytery

This is a church property case. The first issue is whether a national church’s constitution, which purported to convey to the national church a local church’s property in trust, is binding upon the local church, when the local church’s own documents indicated allegiance to the national church but when the local church never indicated (in writing or otherwise) an intention to create a trust in favor of the national church. We hold that no trust was created with respect to the local church’s property. The second issue is whether Missouri law governs the relationship between the local church and…