Although Jane Doe 1’s forced-marriage lawsuit was put on hold last month while Scientology tries to derail it into “religious arbitration,” her legal team has asked the court for an emergency hearing to grant them the right to conduct “limited discovery” in the meantime.
Scientology is opposing it, and the matter will be heard tomorrow morning in court.
Jane Doe 1’s attorney Graham Berry, in the filing asking for the hearing, points out that during the October 27 hearing when a stay was granted putting the lawsuit on hold, his colleague attorney Carmen Scott had asked about the possibility of limited discovery but the judge said he had no motion on it in front of him.
So Berry has now submitted that motion, and asked that it be heard right away because the soonest they could get a normally-scheduled hearing would be in August, long after the issue of arbitration is decided in February.
Berry writes that it’s vital that Jane Doe 1 get this opportunity…
Among other things, Plaintiff Jane Doe seeks certain limited discovery on the facts and circumstances leading to Plaintiff’s signature on the document(s) at issue and whether Plaintiff should be subject to a Scientology “arbitration.”
Scientology, naturally, is against the idea, and adopts its usual ridiculing tone, and accuses the Jane Doe 1 team of actually submitting a motion for reconsideration without calling it that.
They point out that Jane Doe 1 actually already provided a lengthy narrative about the circumstances around the signing of the 2002 contract that is at issue in regards to arbitration, and so no more discovery is necessary.
We excerpted that narrative in its entirety, and it was very interesting to see that in 2002 Jane Doe 1 had traveled to the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida with Lisa Marie Presley, her good friend, but also because her mother was there on course.
She said that she was told to sign the document merely as a way to remain at the base, and not because she was actually taking courses.
Also, she pointed out that the 2002 document, while it carries her signature, was not also signed by any Scientology official, even though there’s a place on the contract for such a signature.
Scientology addressed that in this new filing…
Plaintiff incorrectly argues that the Agreement is not enforceable because it was not signed by Defendants. This is not a Buckeye Note 1 Exception because, in this circumstance, Plaintiff is the obligor (the party required to perform the contractual provision – the obligation to arbitrate) and the Church Defendants are the obligees (the party to whom the performance is owed – the party demanding arbitration). Plaintiff does not dispute that she, the obligor, signed the Agreement. The “defense” that Defendants didn’t sign the Agreement also would not require discovery. Plaintiff asserts it based on the face of the Agreement, and therefore, it presents no basis to permit discovery. Even if the Court were to incorrectly reach the question, the argument is meritless. See Angell v. Rowlands, 85 Cal.App.3d 536, 542 (1978) (“In the absence of a showing that the contract is not intended to be complete until signed by all parties, the parties who did sign will be bound.”).
We’d be interested in hearing from our attorney readers what they think about Scientology’s comeback.
We won’t have to wait long to find out how this is going to turn out. Tomorrow morning in court we’ll see how Judge Robert Broadbelt handles this emergency request, and whether he gives Jane Doe 1 some limited discovery to help her prepare for the February hearing on whether her lawsuit should get sidelined into the legal limbo of Scientology arbitration.
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My boss took my pay about 400 bucks and went on vacation. Took him to arbitration at AOLA.
He bought a intensive and he won the case and never paid me.
Over the years Scientology has become adept at gaming the US legal system. In other countries they have not done as well. There is now case precedent on how unfair and unjust Scientology’s arbitration system is. It’s what you would expect in a place like Russia or N. Korea.
The one thing that the organization cannot get around. All their despotic activities and unjust policies are written down and accessible, showing what sick psychopaths Hubbard and his predecessor David Miscavige are.