Tampa federal Judge Thomas Barber has agreed that Scientology leader David Miscavige has been evading service in a major new labor trafficking lawsuit that was filed in April, and he has given the plaintiffs a court summons they were asking for.
The plaintiffs — three residents of Australia who were longtime members of Scientology’s ‘Sea Org’ — have also asked for more time to find Miscavige, now that they have the summons and will be working with Florida’s Secretary of State’s office to notify the reclusive church leader that he’s a defendant in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit was first filed on April 28 by Valeska Paris and a married couple, Gawain and Laura Baxter, who allege that they had been forced into the Sea Org as children, suffered neglect and harsh punishments as children and adults, and served as virtual prisoners aboard the ship. Valeska also alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by other Sea Org workers, and then had been punished for speaking up about it.
The lawsuit named six defendants — five Scientology institutional organizations, and one person, David Miscavige. The five institutional defendants accepted service without a fuss, and have now filed motions trying to force the case into Scientology’s “religious arbitration,” based on the idea that Valeska and the Baxters signed contracts as adults which obliged them not to sue Scientology but to submit to its internal justice procedures.
Miscavige, however, has not been served, and the plaintiffs have complained to the court that they have made repeated attempts to find the church leader at his homes and offices only to be stopped by uncooperative Scientology security guards. After the latest round of failures to serve Miscavige, the plaintiffs asked the court to issue a summons.
Judge Barber has now signed their proposed order, which means the court is endorsing the assertion that Miscavige is purposely avoiding process servers.
The court finds Plaintiffs’ allegations sufficient to allege concealment by Miscavige. Plaintiffs allege that they expended significant efforts to locate Miscavige, including employing a private investigation firm, conducting public records database searches, and contacting individuals affiliated with Defendants. Plaintiffs also allege that they have made at least 14 attempts to personally serve Miscavige at various addresses and were unsuccessful each time. Plaintiffs further allege that Miscavige has taken affirmative steps to conceal his whereabouts and avoid service, including by directing security personnel at his residence and place of business to prevent Plaintiffs’ process servers from effectuating service. Finally, Plaintiffs allege that Miscavige and his agents have refused delivery of four requests to waive service. Based on these allegations, the court finds that Plaintiffs have met the requirements for substitute service.
If you remember, the plaintiffs had previously asked for more time to serve Miscavige, and had asked for a deadline of October 26. Judge Barber gave them until September 12, which is today. Now, in a new motion, the plaintiffs are asking for additional time to complete the substitute service that the court has granted them. They need more time, they say, in order to go through these steps:
(1) service of the summons and First Amended Complaint upon the Secretary of State; (2) mailing notice to Miscavige that Plaintiffs have effectuated substituted service, with copies of the amended summons and the First Amended Complaint; and (3) filing a certification of compliance with the statute’s procedures and return receipts from the U.S. Postal Service. The certification must be filed “on or before the return date of the process or within such time as the court allows . . .” The return date of a summons is twenty-one days from service. While Plaintiffs believe the statutory process can be completed by the return date, the current deadline for serving the Defendant is September 12, 2022. Plaintiffs respectfully submit that a four-week extension of the deadline, to October 10, 2022, is an appropriate period that will allow one week for issuance of the summons and service upon the Secretary of State, and the subsequent twenty-one-day period to the return date for the U.S.P.S. to attempt delivery of the notices and for Plaintiffs to certify compliance after receiving the Postal Service confirmations.
That certainly sounds reasonable. And perhaps, by October 10, David Miscavige will finally be an official defendant in a lawsuit again. (He avoided being served in the lawsuits filed in 2019 by Valerie Haney and by Danny Masterson’s accusers.)
We are looking forward to seeing which of his favorite attorneys David Miscavige will send to court to whine about all of this.
Riffer? Deixler? Lieberman? Wally? Maybe we ought to set up a betting pool.
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How can defendant David “he is NOT insane!” Miscavige send someone to whine on his behalf if he has not been served? Surely the court would not accept pleadings on the part of someone who evaded service?
Seriously, this sounds like progress. Good luck to the plaintiffs with the rest of the case.
It will be interesting to see if this works, it is still a long shot. Since the inception of Hubbard’s “evasion tech” all staff at all orgs are not allowed to accept or sign for certified or registered mail, so the post office may even have trouble getting certification that something has been delivered.