Religious Litigation Cases in California
by: GibsonSebastian
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Word Count: 618
There have not been many religious
litigation cases in California to date. While recently there has
been considerable publicity surrounding cases involving abuses by
priests in the Catholic churches, there has been little in the way of
action against more visible and more controversial television
evangelists.
While there is much to criticize about some of the more controversial
television evangelists, part of the lack of litigation may be due to
the lack of plaintiffs who first believed in such evangelists so
strongly as to donate to their causes, and then who came to a different
realization about the same religious preacher.
A second factor which could be limiting the amount of such litigation
is the lack of facts coming to light about their accounting practices.
While there have been some investigations by television shows, for the
most part, such investigations have failed to penetrate even the first
layers of security surrounding these television evangelists.
A third factor which appears to be limiting the litigation in this area
would seem to be the lack of any meaningful governmental inquiries or
investigations. There simply doesn’t seem to be any desire by the FBI,
the FCC, the FTC, the IRS or any other governmental agency to
investigate whether there are any scam artists in this field, at least
while the current administration is in office.
In the event such a lawsuit is brought against a television evangelist
alleging misuse of funds, it should be possible to subpoena the
financial records of the evangelist and his or her organization and
possibly the religious network as well if germane to the issues of the
lawsuit. If such a lawsuit were to be brought against either a
television evangelist or a religious television network, what type of
action could be brought?
Certainly, a cause of action for fraud comes to mind. When a television
evangelist tells a person that he is communicating with a higher being
and is healing persons right now both in the audience where the service
is being held and people watching at home, and when those people donate
on the basis of that promise, and fail not only to be healed but there
are no other persons confirmed to have been healed in the audience, a
good cause of action would seem to exist for fraud. Where such claims
cause elderly believers with serious medical problems to donate their
limited resources and forego medical treatment and the result is injury
or death, a further cause of action would seem to lie in negligence and
perhaps for an intentional tort as well.
Private individuals can also bring RICO actions for their damages for
religious and charitable deception. However to do so, such deception
must rise to a level of racketeering. If it does, RICO affords an
additional remedy for the individual litigant.
Since television evangelists make their appeals for donations literally
to millions of people on the air, by cable and on the internet, a class
action may afford a further way to redress the harm caused by any
television evangelists who have ulterior motives for seeking donations
besides helping the poor, and the sick.
Whether you believe in the sincerity of one television evangelist, all
of them or none of them, no one wants a bad apple being allowed to
tarnish those with well meaning motives or being allowed to take money
out of the hands of those who need it most.
If you feel you’ve been defrauded by the claims of a television
evangelist and have contributed money to the evangelist or to his or
her organization or the religious network on which he appears, call
your civil
litigation lawyer.
About the Author
Author Bio:
Sebastian Gibson is a practicing personal injury attorney
represents clients throughout Southern California Lawyer from his main
offices in Rancho Mirage, California representing Motorcycle/Vehicle
Accidents, California
Wrongful Death Lawyers
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