Northwest Baptist Church of Cocoa, Inc., Brevard Baptist Association, Inc., and Surfside Community Fellowship, Inc. v. Trustee Corporation of the King Street Baptist Church, Inc.
The Fifth District reversed a summary judgment that had voided two quitclaim deeds and awarded a writ of possession to a predecessor-in-title church, holding the plaintiff lacked standing at the inception of the case. The 1997 warranty deed left King Street Baptist with no ownership, possessory, or reversionary interest, and post-filing assignments from seventeen 'minority members' could not retroactively create standing. The court further held that even facially sufficient assignments would not help, because deciding whether the assignors were the 'true congregation' would require resolving a doctrinal controversy barred by the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine.
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