James Fairbanks and Alain Beret, married business partners from Sutton, had been searching for the perfect property for nearly two years when they discovered Oakhurst, an aging mansion on 26 beautiful acres in Northbridge. The former retreat center, which was affiliated with the Diocese of Worcester and had been on the market for some time, would be the ideal spot for their next venture: an inn that would host weddings and other big events.
When the Diocese of Worcester unexpectedly dropped out of negotiations with them in June, Fairbanks and Beret were shocked — and flummoxed. Then, they say, a church attorney inadvertently forwarded their broker an e-mail from Monsignor Thomas Sullivan, chancellor of the diocese, advising a church broker that he was no longer interested in selling to Fairbanks and Beret “because of a potentiality of gay marriages” there.
Comments
Good strategy. If you can't afford the property, sue for discrimination and then use the proceeds to pay the amount you previously could not afford.
Brilliant!
Hopefully that pesky little Freedom of Religion thing will not get in their way.
I always thought you could sell your property to anyone you wanted.
Yes that is true. You can sell to whomever you want. It's just when you decide to not sell to someone based on their race, sexual orientation, religion or another discriminatory factor, its best that you not codify your discrimination in an email. Yet again, the church feels it is above the laws. Just because they pay no taxes, it doesn't mean they're exempt from following the rules. I hope Monsignor Sullivan fired up the collection plate yesterday, the "faithful" are on the hook for yet another settlement.
Sad to say, but the credibility of the church on a scale of 1-10 is close to 0.
You can sell your property to anyone you want as long as you don't discriminate, based on race, religion, orientaton, etc. For many sellers, it's really a matter of whether or not you're a decent, law-abiding citizen because nobody can prove you cancelled the sale for bigoted reasons. In this instance the email certainly looks like a smoking gun.