The Rev. David Moyer, the outspoken former Episcopal priest who unsuccessfully sued his bishop in 2008 for sacking him, has filed a malpractice lawsuit against the lawyer who represented him – often free – for many years in his battles with the diocese.
The suit, filed in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, alleges that prominent Philadelphia litigator John Lewis and the firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads failed to adequately represent Moyer in the unusual trial against Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. and then failed to file an appeal when the jury rejected their claim.
Moyer and the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont – where he serves as rector despite his ouster by the diocese in 2002 – are seeking millions of dollars in compensation for the legal costs of the trial and what they say is damage to Moyer’s and the parish’s reputations.
The lawsuit has sharply divided the Main Line parish, however, and angered some of Moyer’s conservative supporters around the diocese who supported his public challenges to liberal trends in the Episcopal Church.
Nice witness. Teach those lawyers that no good deed goes unpunished.
Wasn’t David Moyer made a bishop for Forward in Faith a few years ago?
#2, RM Bruton,
The answer would be, “not exactly.” Moyer was elected in late 2004 as bishop for the Armed Forces by the Anglican Church of America (ACA) which is associated with TAC (traditional Anglican Communion). At the time, Moyer was president (if recollection serves) of FiFNA. I think he was actually, at that point, a priest of Central Africa (not one of the churches usually accused of “boundary crossing” by TEC, but apparently they had at least one priest in the US), having been granted refuge after Bennison threw him out of TEC.
ACA and one or two other of the Continuing Churches are considered in full communion with FiFNA, and therefore his appointment as an ACA bishop was not seen as an issue at the time. Whether his episcopal orders are recognized by either ACNA or any Anglican Communion entity, I don’t know. Of late, he is usually referred to as “Fr. Moyer” in the press reports I’ve seen, but the following, dated last October, is still current as far as I know-
[url=http://acahomeorg0.web701.discountasp.net/military_chaplaincy/mc_index.aspx]ACA Military Chaplaincy[/url]
tjmcmahon,
Thanks for the clarification. Since ACA/TAC will, no doubt, be crossing the Tiber any day now, perhaps if he is trying to get some kind of financial nest-egg by this lawsuit, since Rome won’t accept him as a bishop? I’m sure the folks in FiFNA are not appreciating how this may reflect on them. I am not surprised that parishioners and supporters are leaving.
And so it continues.
One member of the ACNA Pittsburgh Standing Committee told me at this year’s convention that part of the motivation for appealing the ruling in favor of the TEC Diocese was to show solidarity with more vulnerable parishes elsewhere. I wonder if this was the sort of thing she had in mind.
My conviction that we should have walked away is only strengthened by this sort of thing; courtroom confrontations corrupt all sides.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
One of the problems with a litigious society is that we never know when to stop. We bring ill-considered suits and then sue our own lawyers when the inevitable happens. There are a number of reasons why this toxic environment has such a hold on us, but things might be helped if the legal profession itself had more of an instilled ethic to provide potential clients with straight talk on possible outcomes.
NoVA Scout,
Good points. I have worked with a few lawyers over the years and once represented myself in a case against a Judge in Canada, when I was only Twenty-two, in which I was successful. I have Several relatives who have been lawyers, barristers, Crown Attorneys and Judges. But I have never known one who did not advise their client that losing was always a very real possibility. Some people just cannot take No! for an answer. Should make for some interesting and sadly amusing courtroom antics at the Last Judgment.
Jeremy Bonner, Fr. Moyer, while having FiFNA connections, has been clearly among those who wish for the Vatican connection for some years, so this action is pretty far removed from the ACNA.
I don’t see anything to indicate that the lawyer here was grossly negligent. Advice was given, and authorities ruled against them. One has to accept responsibility for one’s own actions.