In Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth v. Episcopal Church, the Texas Supreme Court addressed whether a withdrawing faction was entitled to church property and also addressed a trust issue. No. 18-0438, 2020 Tex. LEXIS 434 (Tex. May 22, 2020). Following a disagreement over religious doctrine dealing with homosexuals, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and a majority of its congregations withdrew from The Episcopal Church. The church replaced the diocese’s leaders with church loyalists, and both the disaffiliating and replacement factions claimed ownership of property held in trust for the diocese and local congregations. Interestingly, on a congregation by congregation approach, the withdrawing factions may be been in the minority.

The church relied on the Dennis Canon and argued that it was a trust that protected the property for it. That canon provided, in relevant part, that “all real and personal property held by or for the benefit of any Parish, Mission or Congregation is held in trust for [TEC][.]” The parties dispute the trust’s validity under Texas law and its revocability.

The Texas Supreme Court held that under Texas trust law, a trust may be created by any of the following methods: (1) a property owner’s declaration that the owner holds the property as trustee for another person; (2) a property owner’s inter vivos transfer of the property to another person as trustee for the transferor or a third person; (3) a property owner’s testamentary transfer to another person as trustee for a third person; (4) an appointment under a power of appointment to another person as trustee for the donee of the power or for a third person; or (5) a promise to another person whose rights under the promise are to be held in trust for a third person. Id. (citing Tex. Prop. Code § 112.001).

The Texas Supreme Court held that the Dennis Cannon did not create an irrevocable trust that could not revoked:

A trust is created only if the settlor manifests, in writing, an intention to create a trust, and a settlor may revoke a trust “unless it is irrevocable by the express terms of the instrument creating it or of an instrument modifying it.” Id. The court of appeals held that the Dennis Canon is not a valid trust under Texas law because “an entity that does not own the property to be held in trust cannot establish a trust for itself simply by decreeing that it is the beneficiary of a trust.” As to revocability, we held in Masterson and Episcopal Diocese that even assuming the Dennis Canon is a valid trust, it is revocable under Texas law because it was not made expressly irrevocable. Moreover, “[e]ven if the Canon could be read to imply the trust was irrevocable, that is not good enough under Texas law. The Texas statute requires express terms making [the trust] irrevocable.” For the reasons stated by the court of appeals (among others), the Majority Diocese asserts the Dennis Canon is not a valid trust, but even if it were valid, it was revocable and revoked by the 1989 amendment to the Diocesan Constitution and Canons, nearly two decades before this dispute arose. TEC contends the Dennis Canon creates a valid trust and argues it is entitled to possession of the disputed property under that trust for two independent reasons: (1) the 1989 amendment was ineffective to revoke the Dennis Canon trust because, at that time, the Diocesan Constitution and Canons only authorized amendments to the diocese’s canons that were “not inconsistent” with the national church’s constitution and canons and (2) the trust is irrevocable because it is a contractual trust supported by valuable consideration. Neither argument is persuasive. While it is true, as TEC says, that the diocese’s organizational documents prohibited the adoption of canons inconsistent with the national church’s constitution and canons, revocation is not inconsistent with a revocable trust. Moreover, in the twenty years between revocation and eruption of a dispute over the property, TEC lodged no objection to the amended canon and does not now contend the 1989 amendment is invalid for any other reason than purported “inconsistency.” In the alternative, and contrary to our holdings in Masterson and Episcopal Diocese, TEC insists that the Dennis Canon is irrevocable notwithstanding the absence of express language of irrevocability, as required by Texas Property Code section 112.051.… TEC has not identified any provision constraining revocation of the Dennis Canon, so the statutory requirement of express language retains its legal force.

Id. Therefore, the Court held that no trust existed to protect the church and held for the faction that left the church.

Photo of David Fowler Johnson David Fowler Johnson

dfjohnson@winstead.com
817.420.8223

David maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution litigation matters throughout his career. David is the primary author of the The Fiduciary Litigator blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting the fiduciary…

dfjohnson@winstead.com
817.420.8223

David maintains an active trial and appellate practice and has consistently worked on financial institution litigation matters throughout his career. David is the primary author of the The Fiduciary Litigator blog, which reports on legal cases and issues impacting the fiduciary field in Texas. Read More

David’s financial institution experience includes (but is not limited to): breach of contract, foreclosure litigation, lender liability, receivership and injunction remedies upon default, non-recourse and other real estate lending, class action, RICO actions, usury, various tort causes of action, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and preference and other related claims raised by receivers.

David also has experience in estate and trust disputes including will contests, mental competency issues, undue influence, trust modification/clarification, breach of fiduciary duty and related claims, and accountings. David’s recent trial experience includes:

  • Representing a bank in federal class action suit where trust beneficiaries challenged whether the bank was the authorized trustee of over 220 trusts;
  • Representing a bank in state court regarding claims that it mismanaged oil and gas assets;
  • Representing a bank who filed suit in probate court to modify three trusts to remove a charitable beneficiary that had substantially changed operations;
  • Represented an individual executor of an estate against claims raised by a beneficiary for breach of fiduciary duty and an accounting; and
  • Represented an individual trustee against claims raised by a beneficiary for breach of fiduciary duty, mental competence of the settlor, and undue influence.

David is one of twenty attorneys in the state (of the 84,000 licensed) that has the triple Board Certification in Civil Trial Law, Civil Appellate and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Additionally, David is a member of the Civil Trial Law Commission of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. This commission writes and grades the exam for new applicants for civil trial law certification.

David maintains an active appellate practice, which includes:

  • Appeals from final judgments after pre-trial orders such as summary judgments or after jury trials;
  • Interlocutory appeals dealing with temporary injunctions, arbitration, special appearances, sealing the record, and receiverships;
  • Original proceedings such as seeking and defending against mandamus relief; and
  • Seeking emergency relief staying trial court’s orders pending appeal or mandamus.

For example, David was the lead appellate lawyer in the Texas Supreme Court in In re Weekley Homes, LP, 295 S.W.3d 309 (Tex. 2009). The Court issued a ground-breaking opinion in favor of David’s client regarding the standards that a trial court should follow in ordering the production of computers in discovery.

David previously taught Appellate Advocacy at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law located in Fort Worth. David is licensed and has practiced in the U.S. Supreme Court; the Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Federal Circuits; the Federal District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas; the Texas Supreme Court and various Texas intermediate appellate courts. David also served as an adjunct professor at Baylor University Law School, where he taught products liability and portions of health law. He has authored many legal articles and spoken at numerous legal education courses on both trial and appellate issues. His articles have been cited as authority by the Texas Supreme Court (twice) and the Texas Courts of Appeals located in Waco, Texarkana, Beaumont, Tyler and Houston (Fourteenth District), and a federal district court in Pennsylvania. David’s articles also have been cited by McDonald and Carlson in their Texas Civil Practice treatise, William v. Dorsaneo in the Texas Litigation Guide, and various authors in the Baylor Law ReviewSt. Mary’s Law JournalSouth Texas Law Review and Tennessee Law Review.

Representative Experience

  • Civil Litigation and Appellate Law