Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Re: McPherson Estate--Breach of contract case--jury finds for Scientology From: mirele@nospamsonic.net (Deana M. Holmes) References: Organization: Knights of Xenu, Valley of the Sun Chapter Message-ID: User-Agent: Xnews/4.05.03 Lines: 40 Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 04:42:54 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 64.24.212.144 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sonic.net X-Trace: typhoon.sonic.net 1012020174 64.24.212.144 (Fri, 25 Jan 2002 20:42:54 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 20:42:54 PST court_reports@yahoo.com wrote in news:ein35ughn62hkgpghrhcttjko2mjjqnqml@4ax.com: > The Estate of Lisa McPherson lost in a jury trial today in Tyler, TX. and > Scientology was awarded $230,000 plus in attorney fees in the breach of > contract case in Texas Federal Court. A little background: There was an attempt to add David Miscavige personally to the Lisa McPherson estate's case as a defendant. A Florida appellate court found last year that since Miscavige had never been served, he had never been added to the case, therefore Scientology was not to get the attorneys' fees they requested in defending Miscavige. (One has to ask why a tax-free organization is allowed to spend allegedly $331,000 to defend a person sued not in his corporate capacity, but as an individual. It seems weird.) In the meantime, the cult had started a similar action against the estate in Texas federal court, claiming diversity jurisdiction, since Dell Liebreich, the executor of the estate, lives in Dallas. Despite the appellate ruling from Florida, the federal court judge let this case go forward, and that is what was decided today. The jury did not give $cientology everything it asked for: Rosen's fee was cut in half, and it may be eliminated entirely upon motion to the court, since Rosen violated federal rules of civil procedure in bringing this case. Additionally, the Estate plans to appeal, since the Texas court does not have jurisdiction over the *estate*, which is in *Florida*. Moreover, in order to collect on this judgment, RTC and David Miscavige have to go to Florida and start an action in Florida courts, where there is already an adverse judgment against them. And it should be noted that the award is rather hollow, since the Estate has no funds. So, while court_report trumpets this as a Big Win, it really isn't very much at all, since it's highly unlikely that this award could be enforced in Florida. This is all I know folks. Deana mirele@sonic.net