Van Schaick v. Church of Scientology of Cal., Inc.

• Decision Date: 26 March 1982
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 79-2491-G.
• Parties: La Venda VAN SCHAICK, Plaintiff, v. CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA, INC., et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

535 F. Supp. 1125

La Venda VAN SCHAICK, Plaintiff, v. CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA, INC., et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 79-2491-G.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

March 26, 1982.

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Thomas Greene, Michael J. Flynn, William Sheridan, Thomas Hoffman, Philip Mulvey, Boston, Mass., for plaintiff.

Nancy Gertner, Thomas Shapiro, Silverglate, Gertner & Shapiro, Boston, Mass., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDERS

GARRITY, District Judge.

This case raises a number of questions regarding the jurisdiction of this court, the adequacy of plaintiff's pleadings, and the reach of various federal statutes and constitutional guarantees. The decisions we state below follow a period of procedural maneuvering between the parties. We preface our discussion of the substantive issues presented for decision by reciting relevant portions of that history.

Procedural History

Seeking relief for herself and on behalf of a class she purports to represent, plaintiff La Venda Van Schaick, a resident of Massachusetts, brought this action originally against the Churches of Scientology of California, Nevada, Florida, Washington, D. C., and New York, and against numerous other corporate and individual defendants, on December 13, 1979. Service was made upon the five above-mentioned defendants by delivery of the summons to the director of legal affairs of the Church of Scientology of Boston. The defendant churches filed a motion to dismiss on January 16, 1980. They argued, either then or later, that the court lacked jurisdiction over the defendants, that service had been insufficient, that venue was improper, that the First Amendment barred inquiry into the subject matter of plaintiff's complaint, that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, that the plaintiff's pleadings were defective and that various parties were improperly named or joined. Plaintiff filed an amended complaint on May 22, 1980 in which she 1) dropped her claims against all defendants except the five aforementioned churches and two individuals, L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, and Mary Sue Hubbard, the second-ranking person in the Scientology hierarchy, 2) sought to add an additional party plaintiff, Sylvana Garritano, and 3) asserted additional claims against the remaining defendants. The complaint, as first amended, asserted that defendants were liable to Van Schaick and Garritano individually for fraud (Counts IV-IX), intentional infliction of emotional distress (Counts X-XII), breach of contract (Count XIII) and violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201, 206 (Count XIV). In addition, the amended complaint sought to state a class action against defendants for treble damages under the civil remedy provision of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961, 1964 (Counts I-III). Defendants objected to plaintiff's attempt to add a party plaintiff. The court heard oral argument on September 8 and September 10, 1980 and received numerous briefs from the parties regarding plaintiff's motion to amend her complaint and defendants' motion to dismiss.¹

Plaintiff moved, on September 4, 1981, for a temporary restraining order and for other injunctive relief to prevent the destruction and dissemination of material allegedly stolen by defendants from the office and trash of plaintiff's attorney and in the possession of the Church of Scientology of California and of defendants' lawyers. Plaintiffs also sought the return of those documents. We heard argument on that contested motion on the same day. At the hearing, we ruled that this court had personal jurisdiction over the Church of Scientology of California and issued a protective order from the bench. That order, the essence of which was subsequently written and entered on September 14, 1981, directed defendants' attorneys to produce for plaintiff's attorney's inspection some 800 allegedly stolen documents and directed the Church of Scientology of California not to destroy or disseminate those documents.

On September 8, 1981, plaintiff moved to amend her complaint again and filed a proposed second amended complaint. Plaintiff stated that her previous motion to amend her complaint was withdrawn. The second amended complaint dropped plaintiff's claims against all defendants except the Churches of Scientology of California and Nevada and the two Hubbards.² It also dropped Garritano's claims and changed various assertions presented in the first amended complaint. On September 17, 1981, we directed Garritano to file a pleading seeking either to participate or withdraw from these proceedings. Garritano subsequently advised the court that she had reached a settlement with defendants, which, after review, this court approved. Accordingly, she withdrew from the case, leaving Van Schaick the sole named plaintiff.

The Church of Scientology of California moved on December 24, 1981 that we reconsider our finding of personal jurisdiction over it and that we conduct an evidentiary hearing to resolve that question. We see no point in embellishing upon that ruling at this juncture, but may, in later ruling on the motion to reconsider, discuss further the issues regarding personal jurisdiction.

This case is within the subject matter jurisdiction of this court under 28 U.S.C. § 1332, 29 U.S.C. § 206 and 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c). We decide below some of defendants' motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction and insufficiency of service, improper venue, failure to state a claim, and on the grounds that the First Amendment bars this action in its entirety.

Motion to Amend Complaint

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a) a party may amend its pleadings once as a matter of course at any time before a responsive pleading is served. Since defendants' motion to dismiss is not a "responsive pleading", McDonald v. Hall, 1 Cir. 1978, 579 F.2d 120, 121, plaintiff was entitled to amend her complaint without leave of court initially. Defendant objected, however, to plaintiff's attempt to add a party-plaintiff without leave of court, arguing that F.R.C.P. 21, which requires a court order to add a party, not F.R.C.P. 15, governs. And, defendants argued that the addition of Garritano as a plaintiff would fail to satisfy the tests for permissive joinder of F.R.C.P. 20. We need not decide that issue, however. Plaintiff Van Schaick now moves the court for leave to file a second amended complaint. She no longer seeks to add Garritano as a party-plaintiff, and Garritano, having reached a settlement with defendants, no longer seeks to intervene. Of course, a motion to file a second amended complaint requires permission of the court. But that permission is to be "freely given when justice so requires" under Rule 15(a), Fed.R.Civ.P. Accordingly, we grant plaintiff Van Schaick's motion to amend and consider the complaint filed September 8, 1981 as her current pleading.

Motion to Dismiss

For the purpose of this motion to dismiss, we assume that the following allegations, contained in Van Schaick's second amended complaint, are true.

Beginning in October, 1971, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bob Harvey, an agent of the California and Nevada Churches represented to Van Schaick that auditing, the central practice of Scientology,³ was scientifically guaranteed to have certain beneficial physical, mental, and social consequences for the plaintiff. Similar claims were shown to her in books and documents written by L. Ron Hubbard and disseminated to Nevada by the California Church through the mail. In March of 1972, in Nevada, Harvey also represented that auditing is confidential; that Scientology is a "law-abiding, religious, scientific organization," and that L. Ron Hubbard is a nuclear physicist with degrees from George Washington University and Princeton.

Based upon these representations, plaintiff paid $575 to the Nevada and California Churches for books and auditing courses between October 1971 and March 1972, and continued to purchase auditing services until January 1974. During this period, Van Schaick worked for the Nevada and California Church full time. She left Scientology in 1974.

During the summer of 1975, the plaintiff was contacted in Las Vegas, Nevada, by her auditor, Pam Bevan, who warned her that unless she returned to the Nevada Church, she would be harassed by the Church and its adherents.⁴ During the same period, she was locked in a furnitureless room for a period of two weeks against her will at the offices of the Nevada Church in Las Vegas, and was audited for alleged "crimes" committed against the Church. In response she paid approximately $3,000 to the Church and, pursuant to an order to "disconnect" from her husband, obtained a divorce. In April of 1977, the plaintiff went to Clearwater, Florida, for additional auditing, and, in April through May of that year, paid $5,000 to the Florida and California Churches for new courses, books, and auditing. Returning to Nevada in April 1977, Van Schaick remained with the Church until March 1979, when she was declared a "suppressive person" and fled to Boston, in fear of harassment from the Church.

In Boston, Massachusetts, on or about September, 1979, the Nevada, California, and Boston Churches and L. Ron Hubbard, acting in concert, attempted to dissuade plaintiff from pursuing her legal remedies by relaying and eventually disclosing her confidential auditing information to her attorney in Boston, by sending Scientologists from New York and Nevada to threaten her, and by causing the Boston Church to harass her.

Jurisdiction under the Conspiracy Theory

The plaintiff here claims that this court has personal jurisdiction over the corporate defendants under the conspiracy theory of jurisdiction. The theory, which evolved in a number of cases alleging civil conspiracies, is based upon the notion...