Bona Fide Purchaser?
A longtime Ripon pastor faces charges including embezzlement and forgery for allegedly selling his church, the land it sits on and other property totaling $525,000 and using the money for his own use, such as to buy a new BMW car. . .
Investigators learned Radic had sold the main building of the church, the land it was on and another small house on the property to unsuspecting buyers -- a Manteca couple -- for about $525,000, Ormonde said. The couple, who were planning to turn the property into an office building, are not in any trouble and are cooperating with authorities, the sergeant said.
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In order to qualify as a good faith purchaser, you must not have reason to believe that the alleged owner lacks authority to sell the property. You'd think a person would be suspicious about a sale of a church. After all, the architecture is usually quite distinctive. Then again, it appears to be a Congregationalist church, so it may have just looked like a big office building with lots of windows. Or the buyers may have figured that the pastor has authority to sell. That cuts against the ecclesiastical polity found in the congregationalist structure, but not many of the laity would appreciate that. Regardless, it seems these purchasers should've been asking a lot more questions, like: "Is that altar-like table included?" and "Will you timely evict all these people who show up Sunday mornings?".
