From ENS (a couple of days old but I just found it)
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has upheld a lower court ruling that said the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh is the trustee of diocesan-held property and assets.
The court, a statewide intermediate appeals court, said in a Feb. 2 opinion that Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph M. James had correctly ruled Oct. 6, 2009 that all diocesan assets must be held by the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh that is recognized by the Episcopal Church. James' opinion and order are here.
"We are pleased with the court's findings and hope that this will be the final legal challenge concerning this issue," said Pittsburgh Bishop Kenneth L. Price Jr. in a statement posted on the diocese's website.
On Oct. 4, 2008 a majority of the delegates to the diocese's 143rd annual convention approved a resolution by which the diocese purported to leave the Episcopal Church. The leaders who departed formed the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh that is part of the Argentina-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. And they say that in that capacity they control all the assets that were held by the diocese when they left.
Those assets include more than $20 million in cash, cash equivalents, receivables, and investments, including about $2.5 million in pooled parish investments and real estate and other real property. The ruling does not involve the ownership of parish property.
The suit arose out of a 2003 complaint by Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh after a special diocesan convention passed a resolution stating that all property in the diocese, which under Episcopal Church canons must held and used for the mission of the church, would be held free of that obligation.
The proceedings in the suit led to an October 2005 stipulated court order in which Duncan and the other then-leaders of the diocese agreed that the "Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America" would continue to hold or administer property "regardless of whether some or even a majority of the parishes in the diocese might decide not to remain in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America."
More here-
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_126885_ENG_HTM.htm
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