By Socrates Smythe Saywon
MONROVIA – The Sixth Judicial Circuit Court, Civil Law Court, Montserrado County, has ruled that breakaway members of the United Methodist Church (UMC) Liberia Annual Conference have no legal or equitable rights to the church’s properties, including worship centers, universities, schools, hospitals, and clinics.
In a ruling delivered on August 18, 2025, His Honor Judge George W. Smith declared that those who seceded from the UMC Liberia Annual Conference and formed or joined another denomination forfeited all rights and interests in the properties of the petitioner, the UMC Liberia Annual Conference.
The court dismissed claims that Bishop Samuel J. Quire, Jr. had authority to mandate the distribution of church properties to breakaway members, stressing the legal maxim nemo dat quod non habet, meaning one cannot give what one does not have. The court emphasized that ownership of the church’s properties rests with its legal trustee on behalf of the membership, not with any individual cleric.
Judge Smith cited Liberian law and precedent, noting that under the Association Law, Title 5, the interest of a member in the property of a non-profit religious corporation terminates upon the end of membership. The ruling held that seceding members, by their disaffiliation and incorporation of the Global Methodist Church Liberia, had voluntarily terminated their membership in the UMC Liberia Annual Conference, thereby forfeiting all beneficial ownership and standing over its properties.
The court further pointed out that throughout church history, breakaway factions have never been entitled to the distribution of properties from the original church body. The ruling referenced past separations between the Anglican and Methodist churches and among Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions, underscoring that seceding groups could not claim ownership of properties belonging to the original denomination.
Accordingly, the petition for declaratory judgment filed by the UMC Liberia Annual Conference was sustained, while the resistance of the respondents was denied and dismissed. The court ordered that breakaway members cease occupying or transferring church properties and refrain from removing official signs and inscriptions that mark them as belonging to the UMC Liberia Annual Conference.
“This declaration shall have the full force of final judgment,” the ruling stated, affirming that those who have severed ties with the UMC Liberia Annual Conference no longer possess legal or beneficial rights to its institutions and properties.
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