Tentative Melodyland Ruling Goes Against Wilkerson

Fundamentalist preacher Ralph Wilkerson acted without legal authority when he locked a dissident board of directors out of an Anaheim seminary last year and posted armed guards to keep them away, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ryan issued a tentative ruling in the first phase of the complex legal tug of war over control of the Melodyland School of Theology.

The school was founded by Wilkerson as a spinoff of his independent Melodyland Christian Center at 1400 Freedman Way in Anaheim. The church attracted a congregation of up to 10,000 on Sundays in the early 1980s before falling victim to philosophical divisions within the congregation and financial difficulties.

Legal President

Ryan announced from the bench that Raymond McMurtry is the legal president of the corporation that runs the seminary. Wilkerson claimed that a new board majority that ousted McMurtry had been elected May 30, 1985, the day security guards were posted and locks changed at the seminary building on the Melodyland complex to keep the McMurtry faction out.

Ryan also found that, in contrast to Wilkerson’s sworn testimony, all assets of the theology school and control of its programs were transferred in 1984 to a board headed by McMurtry. That group, called Melodyland Schools and Colleges Inc., also runs a high school and an undergraduate college.

“The bottom line is, the board of Melodyland Schools and Colleges is now the legal board of the Melodyland School of Theology,’ McMurtry said. “We have control of the assets, as well as the responsibilities that go along with that.”

But McMurtry’s attorney, Jack W. Golden, acknowledged that the ruling was only a partial victory. Jonathan A. Goldstein, lawyer for Wilkerson and the church, said many important aspects of the case--including the damages questions--remain to be decided. What the board will be called, where the McMurtry-run seminary will operate and who will keep the Melodyland name still have to be determined, Goldstein said.

Written Opinion to Come

Ryan said she will issue a formal written opinion later this week, after which both sides must return to court--unless they settle their differences--in late September to begin trial to determine damages.

The McMurtry group has asked for more than $6 million in damages from Wilkerson’s group, most of it punitive damages.

Wilkerson and his church also have more than $1.6 million in claims outstanding against McMurtry, purportedly for back rent for the seminary’s use of buildings on the church property.

“My feeling is we’re still in the middle of the ballgame,” Wilkerson said after Tuesday’s court session.

McMurtry, however, spoke of moving quickly to get the school, once envisioned as a training ground for charismatic Christian ministers, operating again. Its enrollment had fallen to less than a dozen last year, and seminary programs were hurt by the church-school dispute.

‘Back in Business’

“We can officially notify those students who have applied that we’ll be back in business,” McMurtry said. ‘We’ll do that tomorrow morning.”

McMurtry said 14 students who had dropped out of the seminary because of the turmoil will also be contacted.

The high school, college and seminary all started in the Melodyland complex in Anaheim. Testimony during the trial recounted a deepening split between leadership of the church and schools over the last several years.

Although Christian education was clearly at the center of the case, Ryan’s tentative ruling turned on interpretations of contract and state corporations laws.

In his closing argument, Goldstein referred to Wilkerson’s testimony that he wanted to resume what he felt was his mission to train ministers. Goldstein said he expected that no matter what Ryan’s ultimate ruling, the losing party would move to found its own seminary.

Wilkerson maintained that McMurtry had used some assets restricted for use by the seminary to benefit the high school and college, both of which moved from Melodyland in 1984 to a new campus on West Ball Road, about two miles away.