Luis Garcia Responds: We Don't Trust Scientology's Trustee Ploy - 2013-11-05

Luis Garcia Responds: We Don't Trust Scientology's Trustee Ploy November 5, 2013, Tony Ortega, Underground Bunker

---

Yesterday, Luis and Rocio Garcia of Irvine, California filed their response to Scientology's latest attempt to derail their federal fraud lawsuit in Florida. Attorney Scott Pilutik took pains to help us all understand the basic (if lesser known) legal concept of "diversity jurisdiction" that Scientology had put into question with its latest motion.

Scientology argued, nearly ten months after the Garcias filed their lawsuit against five Scientology corporate entities in January, that the Garcias had erred by filing in a federal court in Tampa. Three of the church's entities are trusts with trustees in California, and since the Garcias are also in California, a federal court in Florida was not the correct place for the lawsuit. One of the three entities, CSRT, is particularly key to the suit because of the amount of money the Garcias had given it, and its dismissal might cripple the lawsuit.

Now, the Garcias are responding, and angrily point out that it's awfully late for the church to be discovering the location of its own corporate officers.

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | author = Tony Ortega | title = Luis Garcia Responds: We Don't Trust Scientology's Trustee Ploy | url = https://tonyortega.org/2013/11/05/luis-garcia-responds-we-dont-trust-scientologys-trustee-ploy/ | work = Underground Bunker | date = November 5, 2013 | accessdate = August 21, 2017 }}