A two-year-old church property dispute between Episcopalians and Anglicans appears to be on its way to the Virginia Supreme Court.
On Feb. 3, The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia together filed an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court hoping to overturn a Dec. 19 decision by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows in favor of the Anglican District of Virginia, known as ADV.
On Feb. 10, the Episcopal appeal was followed by a motion asking for an exception to the Supreme Court’s limit of 35 pages in appeal cases.
Peter Lee is quoted: “We have spent so far nearly 2 million dollars on litigation costs as a defendant.”
Isn’t the DioVA the PLAINTIFF in this case??
Well, I expect that the Supreme Court will know the truth about who is the plaintiff!
Yes, the Diocese of Virginia is the plaintiff and Peter James Lee, a lawyer, knows better.
^Lee was my rector at Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill in the early 70’s. Never knew he was a lawyer.
Actually, it’s a good thing that Peter Lee isn’t counsel in this case, otherwise he would be in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct:
[blockquote]
RULE 4.1 Truthfulness In Statements To Others
In the course of representing a client a lawyer shall not knowingly:
(a) make a false statement of fact or law;[/blockquote]
As it is, he’s just a bishop, so little things like Exodus 20:16 (“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” [English Standard Version]) are probably just aspirational guidelines.
Re: Peter Lee being an attorney. That is my recollection – I believe he went to law school at Duke – it could be that he has a law degree and never sat for the bar.
Peter Lee is a good man, but he has been a huge disappointment. He baptized my oldest daughter, but these days he has hardened his heart to what the Lord is doing. I pray that he will still repent and be reconciled.
btw, although not on the subject of Peter Lee being a lawyer, I highly recommend two consecutive notes by Fr. David Handy, which were posted earlier here on T19:
http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/19799/
scroll down to numbers 6 and 7. I believe this is an insightful look at Lee’s tenure as Bishop.
William: Peter Lee is not an attorney, nor is he a law school graduate. He did attend law school for just one year at Duke.
I’m not an attorney, but even I know the difference between the plaintiff and the defendant. Is Lee being misquoted?
I’m not an attorney. I just played one while wearing a mitre around the house.
Surely the Commonwealth of Virginia is the defendant?
http://www.pwcweb.com/ecw
Peter Lee sees himself and TEc as the wronged parties in the case, and so probably does view himself as the defendant.
Pardon the digression, but for us Tar Heels, Duke is “the school where Richard Nixon studied law and where Lefty Driesell studied English.”