A Missouri judge issued an injunction against Windermere Baptist Conference Center after a June 1 hearing to prohibit the breakaway Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) entity from selling more of its land, incurring additional debt or cutting more trees without court approval.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Brown III issued the preliminary injunction against Windermere trustees, agents and attorneys and expressed disapproval of the Windermere transactions.
He kept open the option of rescinding the trustee transactions and restoring Windermere to convention control free and clear of the unauthorized debt.
“The judge cannot rescind these prior transactions at this point because injunctions can only limit future transactions,” said Michael Whitehead, lead counsel for the Missouri convention. “Undoing past transactions must come later, but it will come.”
Whitehead noted that the rule under which Brown acted requires the court to make several advance findings before entering an injunction, including: that the Missouri convention faces irreparable harm unless the status quo is maintained and that the convention has a reasonable probability of success on the merits of this action.
Whitehead said the court has directed that certain legal motions be filed during the week of June 12, which may be set for hearing in July.
Those hearings will address the key legal issue of whether the corporate charters of Windermere and four other entities that broke away give the Missouri convention the right to elect trustees and are legally enforceable by the MBC.
The other entities are the Baptist Foundation, the Baptist Home retirement facility, Missouri Baptist College and the Word & Way Baptist newspaper.
Brown also ordered all tree cutting to stop on Windermere property.
Timber harvesting was commenced in 2005 to generate cash and continued in early 2006.
The judge ordered Windermere to give notice to its logging contractors to stop cutting and removing trees until further order of the court. (BP)
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