Judge in labor trafficking lawsuit refuses relief for ex-Scientology trio: Bad omen?

[Judge Thomas Barber. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM]

Is it nailbiting time in the Baxter v Scientology lawsuit?

We’ve been paying very close attention to the new labor trafficking lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in Tampa ever since it was filed on April 28, and no wonder. It’s a lawsuit with stunning allegations of child abuse and slave-like labor that’s generated a lot of attention, with major write-ups by Tracey McManus at the Tampa Bay Times, Ben Schneiders at the Sydney Morning Herald, and also at the Daily Beast.

But from the beginning of our coverage, we’ve pointed out that the lawsuit, while its allegations are vividly detailed, has some legal challenges that are unrelated to the specific allegations being made about abuse in the Sea Org aboard Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds.

The Scientology defendants have naturally pounced on some of those challenges facing the lawsuit, such as questions about the length of time that has passed since the three plaintiffs, Valeska Paris and a married couple, Gawain and Laura Baxter, have been in the church. And also that their allegations largely took place in international waters, which Scientology says takes them out of the jurisdiction of a Tampa federal courthouse. But perhaps the biggest challenge facing the lawsuit is that Scientology is once again asking a judge to deny these former Scientologists the right to trial because they signed contracts while they were in the Sea Org that oblige them, the church says, to take any grievances to Scientology’s internal brand of “religious arbitration.”

We have noted that not only has Scientology had success with this strategy in several previous lawsuits, but that their most decisive victory, against Luis and Rocio Garcia in their 2013 lawsuit, took place in the exact same Tampa courtroom just a few years ago, and that the ruling to force them into arbitration was upheld by the federal Eleventh Circuit.

So it wasn’t a surprise at all that Scientology responded to the Baxter case by filing, in July, multiple motions to force the case into arbitration. On August 2, Valeska and the Baxters were due to respond to those motions, but instead they informed Judge Thomas Barber that they were going to file an amended complaint. They did so, expanding on their original 90-page complaint to 120 pages. We highlighted the differences, which included complaints about Scientology leader David Miscavige evading service, and even more detail on the horrific things that Valeska and the Baxters endured, including new allegations that they have suffered harassment since filing the lawsuit in April.

Scientology refiled their motions to compel arbitration and motions to dismiss on August 23, which were largely the same as the ones they filed in July. Responses to those motions from the plaintiffs are due on September 13.

It’s pointless to speculate how Judge Barber is going to rule on the arbitration issue at this point, but we thought we would bring up a couple of his recent decisions which, as we say, may set Scientology watchers on edge a bit.

First, the plaintiffs asked for more time to serve David Miscavige, who has so far evaded service, and wanted until October 26 to find him. Judge Barber gave them only until September 12. (The plaintiffs have now submitted a motion with more examples of their process servers running into uncooperative Scientology security guards, and they’ve asked the court to serve Miscavige through the Florida Secretary of State.)

And on Friday, the plaintiffs asked Judge Barber for some relief: Scientology’s five institutional defendants have filed five separate motions to compel arbitration as well as motions to dismiss, and responding to all five separately is going to end up being a big pile of paper. Could the plaintiffs simply answer them all in one document?

All five Defendants move to compel arbitration; Defendants RTC, CSI and IASA move to dismiss the FAC for lack of personal jurisdiction; and all five Defendants move to dismiss the FAC pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). Defendants’ five memoranda total 128 pages with a combined 14 primary argument headings (excluding introductions and conclusions) and 60 subheadings. In support of their various motions, each Defendant’s submission raises numerous arguments and also joins and incorporates by reference other Defendants’ arguments. Responding to this stew brief-by-brief, as the Local Rules may contemplate, will achieve the opposite of judicial economy….Rather than add to the confusion by submitting multiple separate memoranda of law that will necessarily cross-reference both one another and the arguments scattered across Defendants’ five submissions, Plaintiffs request leave to file a consolidated response that will not exceed the aggregate 100 pages permitted under the Local Rules, including a Table of Contents and a Table of Authorities. This will enable Plaintiffs to present an organized and coherent response to this dizzying array of motions and arguments, without requiring the Court to read a single page more than the limit set in the Local Rules.

Seems reasonable, doesn’t it?

Judge Barber’s answer: No.

“Plaintiffs are directed to file a separate response to each pending motion that does not exceed the page limitations set out in the Local Rules,” he announced.

Well, maybe we better not read too much into this. Judge Barber could simply be a stickler for the rules and he could still find for Valeska and the Baxters and spurn Scientology’s arbitration motions. And we can even see this as a positive development: If Judge Barber is going to deny Scientology’s motions, he may be avoiding anything the church could appeal, including giving the plaintiffs the shortcut of a consolidated response. We of course don’t know either way.

But yeah, it’s beginning to feel like a nailbiter.

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