A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 34 - Tuesday, August 24th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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Lawsuit Against Archdiocese Dismissed
BOSTON - The Supreme Court of the State of New York dismissed the lawsuit that was filed last February by 34 Greek Orthodox individuals, against the Greek Orthodox Church of America and its Prelate, Archbishop Demetrios, seeking to invalidate the new Charter of 2003. Among the 34 initial plaintiffs—three withdrew their names shortly after the lawsuit was filed—were officials as well as members of the Orthodox Christian Laity Organization known as OCL including its president and vice president Peter Haikalis from California and Andrew Kartalis from Ohio. On August 6, 2004, Justice Ira Gammerman of the New York State Supreme Court issued his decision in favor of the motion of the Archdiocese to dismiss the lawsuit, ordering the plaintiffs to pay the costs of filing the suit. The judge, in his ten-page decision, dismissed the allegation of the plaintiffs that the Orthodox Church is hierarchical and stated that “the Greek Orthodox Church is a hierarchical Church in which the ultimate control and authority for all members within the Church lies with the Holy Apostolic and Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.” In another instance, Justice Gammerman stated in his decision (on page 9) that “I do not think it can seriously be disputed that the Greek Orthodox Church is hierarchical.” The plaintiffs had used the case of the Protestant structure of the First Presbyterian Church of Schenectady v. United Presbyterian Church in the United States, 62 Ny2d 110 (1984). The Court relied on a United States Supreme Court decision, Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for the U.S.A. v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696 (1976) which he called “squarely on point.” Justice Ira Gammerman further wrote in his decision that “the courts simply do not have the authority to interfere with the manner in which churches organize the titles of their clerics, to determine the eligibility criteria for candidates for Archbishop or Bishop, to oversee monasteries, or to inject the state judicial authority into other matters raised by this action.” The Court decision also stated that, “in the present case, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate determined that it has the power to grant the 2003 Charter without approving certain amendments. The power to decide ecclesiastical matters not explicitly stated in the Charter or regulations is expressly reserved to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is the supreme governing authority of the Greek Orthodox Church.” The court dismissed the claim raised by the defendants that the Archdiocese does not have members: “If a parish member is not a member of the Archdiocese, then who is? “In the absence of any provision in the by-laws which distinguish between membership in a parish and membership in the Archdiocese, the court must conclude that the two are one and the same.” In another paragraph, the decision states: “The court rejected the Archdiocese’s distinction between “spiritual” and “legal” members as “splitting hairs and engaging in semantics” and added that “therefore, plaintiffs are members of the Archdiocese and have standing to bring this action.” Concerning Archbishop Deme-trios, the court’s decision stated that, “plaintiff has separately sued Archbishop Demetrios, seeking an injunction compelling him individually to administer the Archdiocese in accordance with the 1977 Charter and not the 2003 Charter. However, plaintiffs have alleged no actual or threatened misconduct by the Archbishop that would make him a proper party under NFPCL&720 nor are they seeking any specific relief that the Archbishop but not the Archdiocese could provide. The only basis for maintaining the action against the Archbishop is that he is responsible for implementing the Charter, as granted to the Archdiocese. “Accordingly, it is ordered that the motion to dismiss is granted and the complaint is dismissed; and it is further ordered that upon presentation of the requisite papers, the Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly, with costs and disbursements to be taxed by the Clerk.”
It was said during the recent Clergy-Laity
Congress in New York last month that this present
lawsuit was estimated to cost the Archdiocese
$350,000. Among the plaintiffs were former members
of the Archdiocesan Council and various
committees, including the Finance Committee during
Archbishop Iakovos’ Archbishopric era. The former
Archbishop on more than two occasions in his
interviews with The National Herald had called
upon his former coworkers to withdraw the lawsuit
against their Church and Archbishop but Iakovos’
plea was not honored. |
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