Court reverses "clearly improper" injunction in church dispute

Nonprofit and Church Legal Trends - Free Edition - November December 2008 (free edition)

The Supreme Court of Georgia recently reversed two orders in a church dispute; one enjoining certain church members from conducting business transactions, and another finding one of the church members in contempt of court because of the “clearly improper” conduct of the trial judge.

“In addition,” the Court said, “By attempting to himself procure evidence and elicit testimony in the case, the trial judge stepped beyond the role of arbiter and into that of advocate. Indeed, in initiating out-of-court contacts with the involved banks and other witnesses, on whose various hearsay statements he apparently relied in making his findings, the judge also failed to heed this Court’s admonition that judges must scrupulously avoid ex parte communications.”

(Cousins v. Macedonia Baptist Church, No. S08A0579, Ga. SCt. 6/2/08.)