Beech Settlement descendants and the Indiana Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church both claim ownership of Beech Church in Carthage.
RICHMOND — Sides in a dispute over ownership of a historic church building met again Wednesday in Wayne County Superior Court 2.
Beech Church in Carthage, just outside Hancock County, is a house of worship connected with a group of free Black pioneers known as the Beech Settlement. It’s also the place where the Indiana Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was established.
Beech Settlement descendants and AME church leaders are each making a case as to why they are the rightful owners of the property.
AME leaders filed a “quiet title” action in 2000 to establish ownership of Beech Church.
“The litigation was resolved by settlement in 2001,” reads a summary from the Indiana Court of Appeals. In 2020, Beech Settlement Inc. and some individual Beech Settlement descendants “filed their own quiet title action against IAC-AME to challenge the validity of the judgment in the 2000 litigation and ownership of the property. The trial court, however, granted summary judgment to IAC-AME.” Summary judgment is a ruling issued after sides present evidence, without going to a full trial.
The Beech group, however, appealed the ruling. Indiana Court of Appeals heard the case and issued a July 2023 ruling that said the 2001 judgment “was not void” but that the trial court “erred by granting IAC-AME’s motion for summary judgment” regarding Beech descendants’ claim of adverse possession of the property. So the appeals court remanded the case, or sent it back to a lower court. That’s why the sides were in court again Wednesday.
“They have held and maintained that property for over 100 years,” said the descendants’ attorney, Michael W. Padgett. He said Beech descendants held the key to the gate of the driveway leading to the church, until that lock was cut off and replaced. He said descendants raised more than $108,000 to have the building restored.
Attorney Jenna M. Shives, representing the AME, said Beech Settlement Inc. cannot as an organization claim adverse possession because it hasn’t been around for the 10 years required for that. She said the Court of Appeals has said the 2001 judgment “is not void.”
August is the time of the annual Beech Homecoming. Both groups had services over the weekend, the AME inside Beech Church on Aug. 24 and the Beech descendants under a tent at a nearby farm on Sunday.
Judge Gregory A. Horn took the case under advisement and said it would be at least two months before he issued a decision, either to issue summary judgment deciding the case or to send it to a full trial. If the case goes to trial, the trial would likely start in late 2025.
