After practically a yr of allegedly ducking service of a lawsuit claiming little one sexual abuse in his group, Scientology chief David Miscavige despatched his lawyer to a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday to hunt disqualification of the decide on the matter utilizing a peremptory problem — a particular proper that doesn’t require a cause and is allowed solely inside the first few days of showing in a authorized matter for the primary time.
The shock transfer got here after the decide issued a notable proposed ruling in favor of the Jane Doe plaintiff on the eve of the main Tuesday listening to. The tentative ruling, described as “gorgeous” by longtime Scientology watchdog Tony Ortega, discovered that the spiritual arbitration contract signed by the plaintiff — wherein she agreed to submit all future disputes with the church to an ecclesiastical tribunal directed by Scientology — was so one-sided that it was “unconscionable and subsequently unenforceable beneath California regulation.”
As quickly because the court docket revealed Miscavige’s peremptory problem, legal professionals for the Jane Doe questioned the church chief’s motives and argued that he shouldn’t be allowed to swoop in and disqualify the decide contemplating the court docket already had dominated on “substantive points” within the case.
“The timing of that is extremely suspicious,” plaintiff lawyer Carmen Scott informed Choose Robert B. Broadbelt.
Miscavige’s lawyer wasn’t current for the listening to, however Choose Broadbelt dominated that Miscavige’s submitting of the peremptory problem appeared “well timed,” so he had no alternative however to step apart and ship the case to a distinct division to be reassigned to a brand new judicial officer.
In her underlying lawsuit filed in December 2022, the Jane Doe plaintiff alleges that she was born into the Church of Scientology in 1974 and was a 16-year-old member of its elite Sea Org when a male church member sexually assaulted her. She alleges the church compelled her to marry the person in Las Vegas whereas she was nonetheless a minor and that she was subsequently coerced into intercourse with him. She alleges it wasn’t till she was 23 years outdated that she lastly was “in a position to escape” each the person and the church, alongside together with her younger daughter. Her lawsuit alleges church officers “created a tradition wherein sexual abuse was allowed to happen, tolerated, and never reported.”
Attorneys for the church responded to the criticism by arguing that the Jane Doe had signed a binding contract “endlessly abandoning” her proper to sue and agreeing to have any disputes resolved in a non-public spiritual arbitration system. They filed a movement to compel the arbitration, which the plaintiff opposed. The decide weighed in along with his tentative ruling on Monday night time, publishing it on the court docket’s web site. The proposed ruling acknowledged that the First Modification — lengthy invoked by the church to guard its system of spiritual arbitration — didn’t supply a whole protect to each unconscionability problem. The decide took explicit situation with language within the arbitration settlement that was “binding solely on plaintiff,” with out being “an in any other case mutual arbitration provision” obligating the church to surrender its rights to sue.
“The court docket finds that plaintiff has established a excessive stage of substantive unconscionability by exhibiting that the arbitration provision set forth within the settlement lacks mutuality and is so one-sided as to shock the conscience,” Choose Broadbelt wrote. “The court docket finds that plaintiff has met her burden to point out that the arbitration settlement is unconscionable and subsequently unenforceable.”
The Jane Doe plaintiff additionally was a sufferer within the Danny Masterson serial rape case that ended with the actor’s conviction. She additional is a plaintiff in a separate lawsuit in opposition to Masterson and the church alleging harassment. An early ruling in that case compelled spiritual arbitration. It was overturned on enchantment in an unpublished opinion, which discovered the church’s proper to resolve disputes with out court docket intervention needed to take a backseat to the ladies’s First Modification proper “to go away the religion.” That lawsuit is now again in civil court docket and continuing to trial.
