North Buxton congregation launches suit
Group seeking $2 million from former parent church over legal title to property
A community church with historic ties to the Underground Railroad has gone on the offensive, filing a $2-million lawsuit against the Toronto-based British Methodist Episcopal Church in a fight over control of the 150-year-old property. The North Buxton Community Church filed a statement of claim in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejecting the ownership claims of its former parent church, the British Methodist Episcopal Church.
The lawsuit — filed Tuesday in Chatham — seeks to have the court remove the British Methodist Episcopal Church (BMEC) as administrator of the trust governing the church lands, turning the property over to the trustees of the Bethel congregation of the BMEC — the current North Buxton Community Church — that split from the BMEC roughly 15 years ago. Steve Pickard, the lawyer for the North Buxton congregation, said part of the claim focuses on a 1913 act of the Ontario legislature to incorporate the British Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the statutes that created the BMEC, it says “these lands will be transferred to BMEC for the use of the congregation,” Pickard said. “So, that creates a trust,” he added. “BMEC is only holding it in trust for the congregations, meaning the real, true owners are the congregations.”
The lawsuit alleges the BMEC improperly, and without notice, took steps to remove the Bethel congregation from the title of the church and its cemetery. “The Bethel congregation has only learned that BMEC ‘transferred’ the property by way of an Application to Land Titles,” the claim states. “The application was for a name change stating falsely that the trustees of Bethel congregation of the British Methodist Episcopal Church had changed its name to the British Methodist Episcopal Church.”
The claim notes the BMEC sought the transfer of the church lands in an original application the Bethel congregation and North Buxton Community Church intended to oppose.
“Had BMEC taken a proper legal route to change title, it would have had to serve the Bethel congregation and the North Buxton Community Church, and they would have had the opportunity to oppose,” the claim states. “BMEC’s name change tactic was done fraudulently to avoid the issue of title and to remove the Bethel congregation’s and the North Buxton Community Church’s ability to oppose.” None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The lawyer for the British Methodist Episcopal Church could not be reached for comment. This continuing legal battle between the North Buxton Community Church and the BMEC hinges on that 1913 incorporation act, lawyers for both sides first said last month after the Chatham-area congregation decided to take the ownership dispute to court. The provincial organization’s ownership claim over the Buxton church also relies, at least in part, on the 1913 Act to Incorporate the British Methodist Episcopal Church. The 19th-century chapel southwest of Chatham was named in that 105-year-old document. Section four of the act said any property “held by or in trust for or to the use of any congregation” is vested by the BMEC, regardlessof“whatevernameitmaybe held.” The 19 specified properties across the province — listed in a separate section — included the Buxton church.
After the act received royal assent on May 6, 1913, the organization never followed up and changed the titles of those 19 properties into its name, BMEC lawyer Michael Czuma said in a July interview.
That changed on Nov. 17, 2017, when the land title for the Buxton church was transferred to the BMEC from the trustees of Bethel Congregation of the British Methodist Episcopal Church. The provincial organization submitted an application to change the title, citing the statute as evidence to support the claim.
The BMEC then served the North Buxton congregation with legal notice late last year to vacate the historic Chatham-area chapel or rejoin the ranks of the Ontariowide religious group.
The new statement of claim also details the history of the church, which was built by slaves who found freedom in the Buxton Settlement after escaping bondage in the U.S. by following the Underground Railway.
Many of the residents of Buxton, like many of the members of the Bethel congregation, are direct descendants of those escaped slaves, the claim states.
It adds many of their ancestors from that time, and throughout the next 150 years, have been buried in the adjoining cemetery located on church lands.
“The remains of their ancestors are of particular concern to many of the Bethel congregation,” the claim states.
“To many of the community, the care of the cemetery is of much more concern than the actual church building itself.”
The claim also notes it is still an active cemetery, with more than 100 graves purchased and reserved for future burials for members of the community and descendants of the original inhabitants of the settlement.
“The number will continue to increase for the foreseeable future as many more people will wish for this to be their final resting place.”