Owen v. Rosicrucian Fellowship
California Court of Appeal
173 Cal. App. 2d 112, 342 P.2d 424 (1959)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Juanita Owen (plaintiff) was a member of the Rosicrucian Fellowship (the fellowship) (defendant). The fellowship’s bylaws permitted its board of directors to suspend a member by a majority vote upon receiving a written complaint about the member. The bylaws required that written notice of a hearing on the matter be sent to the accused member. After the hearing, at which the accused member had a right to be heard on the matter, the board of directors could expel the accused member by a majority vote. Owen was suspended and ultimately expelled from the fellowship in accordance with these procedures. Owen sought a writ of mandamus requiring the fellowship to reinstate her. Owen also sought to inspect the corporation’s membership mailing list. The trial court declined to grant the writ, finding that it did not have jurisdiction to do so. Owen appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Mussell, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
