KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri appeals panel announced March 31 that it will not rehear the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) argument against Windermere Baptist Conference Center, nor will it transfer the case to the state’s highest court.
Convention officials had hoped for an opportunity to argue that a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District erred in a Feb. 3 decision.
The appeals court had upheld a lower court’s ruling that Windermere trustees had acted legally in 2001 when they changed the agency’s articles of incorporation, removing the convention’s control over appointment of the Windermere board.
In their February ruling, the appellate judges agreed with Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan. He originally ruled that the MBC is not a member of Windermere’s corporation and that no contract exists between the two entities. The appeals court action is the latest in the nearly seven-year-long legal saga that began when the convention sued five formerly affiliated institutions in an effort to force the entities to rescind corporate charter changes.
The Baptist Home retirement home system changed its articles of incorporation in 2000 to elect its own trustees. Windermere, the Word & Way newspaper, the Missouri Baptist Foundation and Missouri Baptist University took similar actions in 2001. The convention filed suit Aug. 13, 2002.
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