Missouri Baptist University wins court case round

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri judge has given an initial legal victory to one of the institutions locked in a messy legal spat with the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC).

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Brown ruled Nov. 10 that the state convention is not the “sole member” of the Missouri Baptist University Corporation. The ruling dismisses the MBC’s contention that it is the university’s sole member, which would have meant that only the convention has the authority to change the university’s corporate charter.

In 2001, four MBC-related institutions — the university, Word & Way newspaper, Missouri Baptist Foundation and Windermere Baptist Conference Center — changed their charters to allow each entity to elect its own trustees rather than to allow the convention to elect them.

Trustees for The Baptist Home — a convention-related retirement-home system — had taken similar action a year earlier. The convention then filed a lawsuit against the five institutions to force the entities to rescind the new charters. Judge Brown ruled that the convention did not become a member of the university’s corporation simply because it traditionally had elected or appointed MBU’s trustees.