Kirtland Temple Suit
The Kirtland Temple Suit (formally Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Williams)
Background
Under the direction of Joseph Smith,
In 1860, a probate court in
Reason for the suit
In 1875, Smith and Forscutt attempted to sell the Kirtland Temple to the city of Kirtland in order to pay several pressing personal debts.[4][5] However, the sale did not proceed because there were doubts surrounding Smith and Forscutt's ownership, since their title was based on a quitclaim deed. Smith pressed the RLDS Presiding Bishop, Israel A. Rogers, to issue a quit claim deed so that he could proceed with the sale; Rogers, instead, demanded the same of Smith on behalf of the Church.[5] Smith insisted that if he were to issue a quit claim deed, it would only open up the church to lawsuits based on the provenance of the Huntley deed, and insisted that the only sensible remedy was for the church to bypass the line of ownership through Huntley and sue to reclaim its ownership as the successor to the original church.[4]
As a result, in 1878 Rogers filed suit in the Lake County Court of Common Pleas, requesting that the court conclude that the RLDS Church held legal title to the Kirtland Temple.
Among others, the RLDS Church named Smith, Forscutt, and
Judgment
On February 23, 1880, Judge L. S. Sherman of the Court of Common Pleas dismissed the case, in that the RLDS Church did not have possession, but opining in its findings that the RLDS Church was the true successor and had the right to possess the properties of the original church.[1]
Kim L. Loving, an attorney and former president of the Eastern Great Lakes Mission Center of the Community of Christ in Kirtland, Ohio, explained why the case was dismissed: "Suffice it to say that, legally, the Court dismissed the default case of the plaintiff, the Reorganized Church, because it failed to allege or prove one of the essential elements of a statutory cause of action to quiet title in Ohio, that the plaintiff was in possession of the property. As such, the involuntary dismissal, or nonsuit, legally was not an adjudication on the merits of the truth or falsity of the plaintiff’s contentions. Findings of fact in such a case are not legally binding on anyone, least of all upon absent defendants. It could be inferred that E. L. Kelley should have known as much, but failed to broach or explore these ramifications with the leaders of the Church."[2]
Though frequently misrepresented as the original product of Judge Sherman, the findings of fact in the case were written as a proposed judgment by E. L. Kelley, attorney for the RLDS Church. In the political climate of the late nineteenth century, it is not surprising that Judge Sherman entered Kelley's proposed judgment into the findings, regarding the legitimacy of RLDS Church claims to and the deviation of the LDS Church from the original church tenets and structures. Opinion of the LDS Church was usually unfavorable during the period, and judicial and legislative interference in LDS Church matters was at an all-time high due to
Publishing the ruling without mention that the case had been dismissed, Kelley strengthened public opinion that the RLDS Church was "the True and Lawful continuation of, and successor to the said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, organized in 1830, and is entitled in law to all its rights and property."
While their attempt to clear the title was ultimately dismissed, the RLDS Church began maintaining the temple on the basis of the court's opinion that it was the lawful successor of the original church. Although the 1880 case had no legal bearing, the church secured clear title to the temple through adverse possession by 1901. In dire need of repair from the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, without a restoration of the building as undertaken by RLDS Church caretakers it is unlikely the building would be standing today. The RLDS Church, which was renamed Community of Christ in 2001, remained the owner of the Kirtland Temple until 2024, when the LDS Church bought the Kirtland Temple, along with other historic sites in Nauvoo and various historic documents, for 192.5 million dollars.[7]
Disputed legacy
Though the court dismissed the case, the publication of the findings of fact filed by the attorney representing the RLDS Church in the
The legal meaning of the dismissal—whether it strengthened or overturned RLDS Church claims to the temple—is contested amongst historians and others to this day.
In 1942, E. Guy Hammond, an Akron, Ohio attorney, wrote to RLDS Church leader Israel A. Smith: "From your letter I get the impression that you still cling to the notion that Judge Sherman's decision in Common Pleas at Painesville might be relied on. For my part, I cannot see, as explained before, that this decision can have the least effect, other than to dismiss the case, and to deny the relief prayed for. And if we should rely on it in any respect, in the first instance, it would but give the adversary opportunity to make us ridiculous."[12]
As late as 1986, historian Roger D. Launius, however, still upheld that "[i]t would be quibbling to suggest that the outcome of the Kirtland Temple Suit did not give the Reorganized church legal ownership of the property."[13]
In 2004, Loving countered: "These polemical proclamations of victory may have carried some weight in the court of public opinion .... The only difficulty, at least from today's perspective, was that the Reorganization's polemical proclamations of judicially determined legitimacy actually had no legal basis whatsoever. In fact, the legal result of the lawsuit was that the title stood exactly as it had before the case was filed; legally, nothing had been accomplished. This finding goes to the very essence of the matter and can hardly be dismissed as mere 'quibbling'."[2]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints v. Williams, Record T, 1880, p. 488, Court of Common Pleas, Lake County Courthouse, Painesville, Ohio.
- ^ a b c d Kim L. Loving, "Ownership of the Kirtland Temple: Legends, Lies, and Misunderstandings", Journal of Mormon History 30(2): 1–80 (Fall 2004).
- ^ a b Eric Paul Rogers and R. Scott Glauser, "The Kirtland Temple Suit and the Utah Church", Journal of Mormon History 30(2): 81–97 (Fall 2004).
- ^ a b c d Joseph Smith III, Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III (1832-1914 (Independence, Missouri: Herald House) pp. 192–93; originally Saints' Herald 82:1552–53 (1935-12-03).
- ^ a b c d Roger D. Launius, "Joseph Smith III and the Kirtland Temple Suit", BYU Studies 25:110–16 (Summer 1985).
- ^ Roger D. Launius, Joseph Smith III: Pragmatic Prophet (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press) pp. 248–53.
- ^ Walch, Tad. "Church announces purchase of historic Kirtland Temple, other historic sites and manuscripts". Deseret News. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
- ^ Elbert A. Smith. The Church in Court: Decisions of United States and Canadian Courts Affecting the Standing of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Lamoni, Iowa.: Herald House) pp. 3–6.
- ^ Inez Smith Davis (1969). The Story of the Church (Independence, Missouri.: Herald House) p. 554.
- Saints' Herald82:1553–54 (1935-12-03).
- Saints' Herald90:40–43, 54 (1943-01-09).
- ^ E. Guy Hammond, Letter to Israel A. Smith, November 3, 1942, Kirtland Temple file, Community of Christ Legal Department. Quoted in Loving, 67.
- ^ Roger D. Launius. The Kirtland Temple: A Historical Narrative (Independence, Missouri: Herald House, 1986), 115.