El Bey v. Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc.

HARRELL, Judge. On 27 March 1997, the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County issued an interlocutory injunction restraining Fr'ank Lewis El Bey (Petitioner) from referring to himself as an officer, director, agent, or trustee for or of the Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc. (Temple or Respondent), a religious corporation of the State of Illinois. Following a trial held on 17 December 1998, the injunction was made permanent by an order dated 6 January 1999. Petitioner appealed to the Court of Special Appeals asserting that the Circuit Court did not have the authority to resolve a religious dispute, that damages sufficient to merit an injunction were not shown, ³⁴³ and that the Court failed to apply the appropriate definition of the term “trustee.” The intermediate appellate court, in a reported opinion, affirmed the Circuit Court, holding that the dispute was resolved properly by the application of neutral, secular principles, that Respondent had suffered and would continue to suffer irreparable harm from Petitioner’s misrepresentations unless such conduct were enjoined, and that the term “trustee” was not a term of legal significance within the contemplation of the Temple’s corporate documents or structure.

El Bey v. Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc., 130 Md.App. 543, 561 , 747 A.2d 241, 251 (2000). We granted Petitioner’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari, 1 which posed the following three questions: 2. Whether the Circuit Court and the Court of Special Appeals erred in holding that a religious organization has a judicially-protectible property interest in its name? 1. Whether the Circuit Court and Court of Special Appeals erred in holding that the Courts have subject matter jurisdiction to determine the governance of a religious organization by the application of secular corporate principles notwithstanding the fact that the parties have agreed that the religious dispute cannot be resolved by the application of secular corporate principles; but instead, by the internal religious documents of the religious organization? 3.

Whether the Circuit Court and the Court of Special Appeals erred in holding that a person can be enjoined from referring to one’s self as the leader of a religious organization and his stated intention to continue to do so in the future, notwithstanding the fact that the undisputed facts show that the religious organization has not been harmed in any respect whatsoever as a result thereof? ³⁴⁴ We conclude that a fundamental flaw in the underpinnings of the Circuit Court’s issuance of the injunction is the absence in the record of evidence of irreparable harm or damage meriting the relief granted. Accordingly, we reverse the Court of Special Appeals and remand the case to it with directions to vacate the injunction. I. A. Background and Organization of the Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc. Noble Drew Ali founded the Moorish Holy Temple of Science in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey, as a vehicle to advance the tenets of the Islamic faith, as he viewed them to be, in the United States. He subsequently incorporated the Temple in 1926 under Illinois law as a civic corporation.

In 1928, Noble Drew Ali changed the name of the corporation to the Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc., ánd changed the purpose of the organization from civic to religious. Diming his leadership of the Temple, Noble Drew Ali served as the Moderator (the head of the Temple) and also was referred to as the Prophet, a title of religious, but not legal, significance within the corporation. According to the Temple’s articles of incorporation, as well as its constitution and bylaws adopted in 1928, the elected officers who served under the Moderator included the Branch Sheik, the Grand Sheik, and other chairpersons. The Temple’s outposts grew rapidly under Noble Drew Ali’s leadership, with temples established in many states.

Noble Drew Ali died in 1929. During the Temple’s seventh annual national convention in September 1934, it adopted rules and regulations regarding the governance and succession of officers of the Temple. Under these rules, the Moderator position became an elected one known as the Supreme Grand Advisor and Moderator, 2 which continues to be the title used by successive national corporate leaders, including the current ³⁴⁵ one, Robert Love El (Love El), a resident of Prince George’s County, Maryland. Other elected officers are now known as Grand Governors or Governesses, Grand National and Assistant Grand National Secretary, Grand National and Assistant Grand National Treasurer, and Secretary and Treasurer of the related Moorish Manufacturing Company.

B. The Dispute On 10 September 1996, Petitioner provided to “all Governors, Grand Sheiks and Head Official [sic] of All Temples of America” affiliated with Respondent a memorandum announcing that he was appointed] as Trustee of the Express Trust created by the Prophet Noble Drew Ali; through fulfillment of that appointment, I have been vested with all authority and power of The Moorish Science Temple of America.... Accordingly, my office as Chief Executive Officer of the [Temple] is effective immediately.... I will appoint by January 8, 1997, an Executive Council (Rulers) of which I will act as Chairman. Petitioner also stated that “a similar Memorandum will be prepared and circulated among all” members of the Temple.

He concluded his announcement by advising the Temple leadership to seek out the aid of an attorney regarding Petitioner’s legal rights as the Temple’s trustee. 3 ³⁴⁶ On 22 January 1997, Respondent 4 petitioned the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County to issue ex parte, interlocutory, and permanent injunctive relief against Petitioner to prohibit him from referring to himself as an officer, director, agent or trustee of the Temple. Respondent, in its complaint, alleged that Petitioner fraudulently was collecting money in the Temple’s name, disseminating false and misleading information about his status as a trustee of the corporation, and attempting to recruit Temple members; this conduct, it argued, would embarrass and tarnish Respondent’s reputation and good name. On 24 January 1997, the Circuit Court ordered Petitioner, a resident of the District of Columbia, to show cause at a hearing to be held on 7 March 1997 why a temporary restraining order should not issue as requested. Petitioner did not attend the hearing. 5 The court ordered on 26 March 1997 that ³⁴⁷ Respondent be granted the interlocutory injunction restraining Petitioner from referring to himself as an officer, director, agent or trustee of the Temple.

In response to this order, Petitioner, after it was served upon him, filed a motion on 25 April 1997 to dissolve the interlocutory injunction and requested a hearing. On 27 June 1997, he filed a counterclaim in which he sought to “take possession of all [Temple] trust property and assets.” In an amended counterclaim filed on 4 August 1997, Petitioner also asked the court to grant an injunction restraining the Temple from relying on the 1934 bylaws and Love El from representing himself as the President of the Temple. The parties tried the matter before the Circuit Court on 17 December 1998. In support of its request for permanent injunctive relief, Respondent stressed several points advanced previously in support of the temporary injunction.

First, it argued that Petitioner had no authority over or within the organization in which he was neither a member nor an elected officer. Specifically, Love El testified that only the Supreme Grand Advisor and Moderator is authorized under its charter ³⁴⁸ and bylaws to appoint a sheik, and that neither he nor any prior Supreme Grand Advisor had appointed Petitioner to that or any position within the Temple. Second, Love El testified the Temple does not recognize or utilize the title of trustee, observing that Noble Drew Ali “appointed officials.... Instead of calling them ‘trustees,’ he called them sheiks and sheikess [sic].” Third, Respondent concluded that Petitioner’s conduct would hurt both the Temple’s reputation and its purse strings.

The Temple, through Love El and counsel, acknowledged, however, that its officers had not witnessed Petitioner soliciting members and that it was unable to provide any evidence that Petitioner had collected any monies under the guise of being a trustee of the Temple. Defending his claim of control over the Temple, Petitioner countered that Noble Drew Ali created in him an express trust for the Temple and its holdings, and that this trust dated back to the 1928 incorporation of the Temple. 6 Petitioner explained that he became aware of his appointment in 1978, when a Moor gave him a deed of conveyance to the Temple, and that he accepted this appointment in 1981. 7 To support this contention, Petitioner asked the court to read into the record several documents that he claimed evidenced this express trust, including portions of the Temple’s Holy Koran, which he claimed traced the title of various lands, including ³⁴⁹ the entire United States, from ancient peoples to the Moorish Americans of today. The “title” traced in the Koran, he argued, is the legal instrument which made him the rightful trustee of the Temple. Petitioner then argued that Love El’s presidency and the offices held by other Temple members are invalid because they were elected by the Grand Body, but not appointed by the Prophet.

In response to the Temple’s claims that he was conducting himself in a fraudulent manner, Petitioner responded that he could not have committed fraud or usurped Love El’s presidency since Love El was not the authorized leader of the Temple, i.e., not appointed by the Prophet or Petitioner. He also argued that he had not fraudulently recruited members or collected a “substantial” sum of money. Rather, Petitioner claimed that, as the appointed trustee of the Temple, he had the right to “take possession of all trust property and assets into his immediate physical custody and possession.” C. Judgments of Circuit Court and Court of Special Appeals After considering the evidence, such as it was, and the parties’ arguments and counter-arguments, the Circuit Court granted the Temple equitable relief and ordered a permanent injunction against Petitioner on 6 January 1998. 8 Although Petitioner had insisted repeatedly that he had been named the trustee of the Temple, the court found no evidence of any document providing for an express trust: First of all, the Court would like to define “express trust,” because there seems to be a misunderstanding as to exactly what an express trust is. Since we are talking initially of a trustee, which [Respondent] says that it is a term that is foreign to the Moorish Science Temple of America, a trustee would have to be duly appointed or designated, and that the term includes a ³⁵⁰ person with whom or in whose name a contract is made for the benefit of another. ... but the bottom line is there is absolutely no indication that the founder of this movement ever intended a trust of anything.

The judge determined that not only was the word “trustee” not used in any of the Temple’s corporate documents received in evidence, but that “whoever drew [the Temple’s articles of incorporation] up expressly eliminated [crossed-out] the word ‘trustee’ [in the form document] and replaced it [in handwriting] with [the word] ‘sheik.’ ” Having found no evidence of an express trust to support Petitioner’s claims to a secular leadership position or the property of the Temple, the court ordered the permanent injunction restraining Petitioner from referring to himself as an officer, director, agent, or trustee of the Temple. 9 Petitioner filed a direct appeal with the Court of Special Appeals on 22 December 1998. He ultimately asserted three grounds for reversal: (1) the Circuit Court lacked the authority to resolve the religious dispute presented by the case, in light of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution; (2) the requisite likelihood of irreparable damage to Respondent to justify an injunction was not demon ³⁵¹ strated; and (3) the court, in ordering the injunction, failed to apply properly the term “trustee,” at least in the sense that term was understood by Petitioner. On 3 March 2000, the intermediate appellate court affirmed the Circuit Court’s judgment, holding that the Circuit Court properly resolved the dispute by neutral, secular principles, that “trustee” was not a term used by the Temple, and that the Temple had suffered and would continue to suffer irreparable harm from Petitioner’s misrepresentations. El Bey v. Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc., 130 Md.App. 543, 561 , 747 A.2d 241, 251 (2000).

We granted certiorari on 23 June 2000. Bey v. Moorish Temple, 359 Md. 333 , 753 A.2d 1031 (2000). Because we shall decide this case based on a point embedded in Petitioner’s third question, we shall not answer his other queries.

II

The Circuit Court possessed the authority to consider injunctive relief in a legal dispute involving a religious organization. Before we consider whether the lower courts properly concluded that Respondent satisfied the requirements for the issuance of permanent injunctive relief in this case, it is necessary first to address Petitioner’s concern that the trial court did not possess subject matter jurisdiction to hear this case. The parties agree that “Maryland courts, like courts generally in this country, have no authority to resolve religious disputes.” Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church of Fruitland, Inc. v. Board of Incorporators, 348 Md. 299, 309 , 703 A.2d 194, 199 (1997) (citing Polen v. Cox, 259 Md. 25, 31-32 , 267 A.2d 201, 204-05 (1970)).

Maryland courts have a legitimate interest, however, in resolving secular disputes, including those involving property interests or those requiring an interpretation of corporate charters or bylaws, through the application of neutral principles of law. See, e.g., Mt. Olive, 348 Md. at 310 , 703 A.2d at 199 ; American Union of Baptists, Inc. v. Trustees of the Particular Primitive Baptist Church, 335 Md. 564 , 644 A.2d 1063 (1994). ³⁵² The pith of Petitioner’s argument in this regard is that it was improper for the trial court to settle this ecclesiastical dispute because it does not concern real or personal church property, but rather the rightful leadership of the Temple. In numerous pleadings and papers filed in the Circuit Court, however, Petitioner repeatedly asserted that all “trust” property, assets, and records should be placed in his immediate physical possession. 10 To this, we remind Petitioner that “ ‘[wjhen rights of property are involved ... the courts, of necessity, must proceed to consider and adjudicate those rights not only to solve the particular case and the rights of the litigants before them, but also to preserve definiteness and order in the holding of property by religious corporations.’ ” Mt.

Olive, 348 Md. at 310 , 703 A.2d at 199 . We therefore conclude it incongruous for Petitioner to argue that the dispute does not concern real or personal Temple property when he put the ownership or right to possession of such property in issue. 11 Petitioner also asserts that the Court of Special Appeals erred in resting its resolution of his subject matter jurisdictional challenge on the Temple’s alleged proprietary “interest in protecting its good name as a stable religious organization with an orderly mode of government and succession of leaders.” Because the trial court’s jurisdiction over this dispute ³⁵³ stemmed from other proprietary interests, as we noted supra, we find it unnecessary to reach this issue.

III

A. Standard of Review When reviewing a judgment arising from a bench trial, we must “review the case on both the law and the evidence,” but we must “not set aside the judgment of the trial court on the evidence unless clearly erroneous,” for we must “give due regard to the opportunity of the trial court to judge the credibility of the witnesses.” Maryland Rule 8-131(c) (2000 Repl.Vol.). Additionally, we must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, deciding not whether the trial judge’s conclusions were correct, but whether they were