Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church v. Trustees of the Jackson Square Evangelical Lutheran Church

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The bill in this case is filed for the specific performance of a contract of sale of church property situate in Baltimore City. The case was submitted to the Circuit Court of Baltimore City upon an agreed statement of facts and from the pro forma decree dismissing the bill, this appeal has been taken. By a lease of the 5th day of December, 1866, Thomas F. Johnson and others, for the consideration of the yearly rent of two hundred and eighty dollars conveyed for ninety-nine years, to Wm.

F. Pentz and seven others and to their successors, lessees in trust, certain property situate in Baltimore City, upon the following trust: “ In trust that the said premises shall be used, kept, maintained and disposed of as a place of divine worship for the use of the white ministry and white membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, subject to the usages and ministerial appointments of said church as from time to time authorized and declared by the General Conference of said church and the Annual Conference in whose bounds the said premises are situate.” On the 20th day of the same month and year, the Jackson Square Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church was duly incorporated under Art. 23 of the Code, and by the act of incorporation, Wm. F. Pentz and the other lessees in trust, ¹⁷⁷ named in the lease of the 5th of December, 1866, were constituted trustees of the church. Subsequently, on the 31st of July, 1876, Alexander Ray and four others, the survivors of the trustees named in the lease of the 5th of December, 1866, conveyed absolutely this property to the Jackson Square Centenary M. E. Church, a body corporate, “ unto and to the use of the church (by its corporate name) and its assigns, for all the residue of the term yet to come and unexpired therein, with the benefit of renewal forever.” And on the 9th day of February, 1889, the Jackson Square Methodist Church granted and assigned the same property to the appellants, the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the East Baltimore Station, a body corporate. Afterwards, on the 5th day of April, 1892, the appellants agreed in writing to sell the property to the appellees.

The only question here presented is whether the appellant has a good and marketable title to the property which the appellee has agreed to buy upon the terms set forth in the contract of sale. Now it is very clear, that the trust expressed and contained in the lease from Johnson et al. to Pentz et al. is void and must fail. In Isaac et al., Trustees, v. Emory et al., 64 Md. 337 , it was held, in construing a similar trust, that “ this designation of beneficiaries is too vague and indefinite to be sustained by the Courts. According to the uniform course of decisions in this State, a trust cannot be upheld unless it 'be of such a nature that the