From South Carolina-In a back-and-forth legal case, a state circuit court judge has ruled a state church district of about 50 congregations would still have the right to compensation for improvements it made to parishes through the years, even if it lost property ownership to a national church group.
Late Tuesday, Judge Edgar Dickson of South Carolina's First Judicial Circuit denied the motion of The Episcopal Church and The Episcopal Church of South Carolina to dismiss a Betterments Statute claim filed by a former breakaway group, the Diocese of South Carolina, according to a diocese news release.
And compensation for those improvements could be "substantial," according to a diocese official.
The diocese, or state church district, split from the national Episcopal Church in 2012 because of theological concerns and is now part of The Anglican Church in North America.
"The Betterments Statute makes this possible: If you improve it - thinking you owned it - and it turns out somebody else does, they have to in some fashion compensate you for those improvements," said Jim Lewis, Canon to the Bishop of the diocese on Wednesday.
More here-
https://theitem.com/stories/judge-sc-diocese-has-right-to-money-for-property-upgrades,332676
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