/>iI have devoted several posts over the years to California's Unincorporated Association Law. See Thinking About Joining A Club? You May Want To Consider These Corporations Code Provisions First, Is Your Club A Legal Entity?, Is A Biker Gang A "Person"?, Judge Orrick Rules A Decentralized Autonomous Organization May Be Sued As An Unincorporated Association , Court Rules An LLC To Be An Unincorporated Association, But Is That Correct?. Although many houses of worship are incorporated, some are not. Even amongst incorporated religious groups, there can be sub-groups such as parishes or wards.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is an incorporated church, but it also maintains a hierarchical structure consisting of "stakes" and "wards". According to the LDS' study manual, a "stake" is "a group of local Church congregations". A stake generally consists of about 3,000 to 5,000 members in five to ten congregations. A "ward" is a local congregation presided over by a Bishop. So is a "stakes" and "wards" subunits of the incorporated church or are they unincorporated associations, as defined in the California Corporations Code? The answer can have significant implications, such as determining whether there is diversity for purposes of diversity jurisdiction in federal court. See Court Rules California Unincorporated Association Is A South Dakota Citizen.
The California Corporations Code defines an "unincorporated association" as "an unincorporated group of two or more persons joined by mutual consent for a common lawful purpose, whether organized for profit or not". Cal. Corp. Code § 18035(a). In Roe LB 61 v. Doe 1, 2025 WL 1218360 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 28, 2025), Judge John Holcomb ruled that a stake is not an unincorporated association because "operates on property owned by the [LDS] Church Corporation, under the guidelines and guidance provided by the Church, for the religious practice of members of the Church, and it is funded by the Church Corporation, and it is not independently incorporated. Several other federal courts have reached the same conclusion. See, e.g., Jane Roe MB 69 v. Doe 1, 2025 WL 415344 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 6, 2025); Roe JW 142 v. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2024 WL 5182415 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 20, 2024); and Roe AJ 1 v. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2025 WL 268882 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 22, 2025).
