Dandar v. Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc.

924 F. Supp. 2d 1331, 2013 WL 593923, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20833
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 15, 2013
DocketCase No. 8:12-cv-2477-T-33EAJ
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 924 F. Supp. 2d 1331 (Dandar v. Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dandar v. Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization, Inc., 924 F. Supp. 2d 1331, 2013 WL 593923, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20833 (M.D. Fla. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

VIRGINIA M. HERNANDEZ COVINGTON, District Judge.

This cause comes before the Court in consideration of Defendants’ Motion to [1333]*1333Dismiss (Doc. #48), filed on January 18, 2013. Plaintiffs filed a response in opposition to the motion on January 31, 2013. (Doc. # 54). For the reasons that follow, the Motion is granted in part and denied in part.

I. Background

Beginning in 1997, Plaintiff Kennan Dandar represented the Estate of Lisa McPherson in a wrongful death action against Defendant Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization in. the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County, Florida. (Doc. # 45 at ¶ 22). Dandar alleges that. Defendant David Misc.vige, who Dandar describes as “the worldwide supreme leader over all Scientology entities,” id. at ¶ 19, retained Defendant Johnson Pope Bokor Ruppel & Burns LLP in the McPherson case “due to [the law firm’s] political connections in Clearwater and Pinellas County.” Id. at ¶ 24.

The presiding judge in the McPherson matter, the Honorable Robert Beach, though not joined as a defendant in this action, is alleged to have conspired with the private Defendants to violate Dandar’s “rights under the First, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.” Id. at, ¶ 79. Dandar claims that Scientology originally “sought to have Senior Judge Robert E. Beach appointed to preside over the [McPherson] case by filing motions to disqualify the [original] presiding judge, the Honorable Susan Schaeffer.” Id. at ¶ 26. Additionally, Dandar claims that “while Scientology sought to disqualify Judge Schaeffer, Judge Beach campaigned to become the presiding judge in the McPherson civil case.” Id. Judge Schaeffer eventually recused herself from the McPherson matter, and the Chief Judge of the state circuit court then assigned Judge Beach to the McPherson case. Id.

After Judge Beach had been assigned to the McPherson case, “Misc.vige [allegedly] order[ed] and [paid] another Scientology counsel to meet ex parte with a state actor ... Judge Robert Beach, in the McPherson death case.” Id. at ¶ 27. Dandar claims that “Scientology’s counsel, after meeting many times with Judge Beach ex parte to gather sympathy for Scientology in the wrongful death case, defamed Dandar in his business reputation and goodwill, and pursuant to a game plan previously concocted by ... Misc.vige and Scientology, convinced Judge Beach to contrive a defective and illegal procedure ... to make the McPherson case go away by simply removing Dandar as counsel for the Estate in the wrongful death case.” Id. at Judge Beach allegedly “joined in this plan and agreed to remove Dandar as lead counsel for the McPherson estate.” Id.

Despite having been removed as .lead counsel, Dandar appeared at the May 26, 2004, mediation conference scheduled in the McPherson action. Id. at ¶33. According to Dandar, “Scientology, through Pope, refused to mediate the McPherson wrongful death case, and instead insisted on a ‘global settlement conference’ encompassing not only the court ordered mediation for the McPherson case, but also the myriad of cases brought by Scientology and related entities against Dandar, Dell Liebreich, or the estate.” Id. During the mediation, “Dandar agreed to a global settlement, releasing any claim he had against Scientology at that time ... by executing a Release ... so that the Estate of Lisa McPherson could go forward with a settlement.” Id. Also at the conference, Dandar ultimately signed (though, Dandar insists, not in his individual capacity, but rather as “counsel”) a Settlement Agreement including a provision the parties refer to as the “disengagement clause,” which provides, in relevant part:

[1334]*1334The McPherson Parties agree to a full, permanent disengagement from the Scientology Parties, including no further anti-Scientology activity, and no involvement in any adversarial proceedings of any description against the Scientology Parties under any circumstances at any time.

Id. at ¶ 37.

Dandar, his law partner Thomas J. Dandar, and their law firm, Dandar & Dandar, P.A., were included within the Settlement Agreement’s definition of “the McPherson Parties.” Id. at ¶ 34. “The McPherson case was dismissed on June 8, 2004, by the filing of a Joint Voluntary Dismissal With Prejudice.” Id. at ¶ 36.

Nearly five years later, on February 13, 2009, Dandar filed another wrongful death action against Scientology, this time on behalf of the Estate of Kyle Brennan, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Id. at ¶ 40. In response to Dandar’s perceived breach of the Settlement Agreement, “Defendants filed a motion [to enforce the Settlement Agreement] in the closed case of McPherson.” Id. at ¶ 43. According to Dandar, by permitting Defendants to file this motion in the McPherson case rather than filing a new action for the purported breach, “[t]he state court, through co-conspirator Judge Beach, waived the legal requirements ... to pay a filing fee and file a complaint to invoke the jurisdiction of the court, ... waived the requirement of process and service of process, and permitted the Defendants to avoid the required random selection of judge assignment.” Id. at ¶ 44.

Next, Dandar contends, “as part of the conspiracy with Defendants,” Judge Beach held that the disengagement provision “prohibited Dandar’s representation of the Brennan Estate in federal court, and that this prohibition was enforceable.” Id. at ¶ 46. Accordingly, “on June 10, 2009, Judge Beach ordered Dandar to cease his representation of all parties against Scientology other than the plaintiff in the now dismissed McPherson action.” Id. Dandar appealed this order to Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal, and on November 13, 2009, the appellate court per curiam affirmed Judge Beach’s order. Id. at ¶ 47.

On February 19, 2010, upon Dandar’s failure to withdraw from the Brennan action, “Judge Beach heard Scientology’s motion to enforce his order of June 10, 2009, and Dandar’s motion to void the settlement agreement.” Id. at ¶49. On April 12, 2010, “at the behest of Scientology, Pope, and in furtherance of the conspiracy,” Judge Beach found Dandar in civil contempt of his June 10, 2009, order, directed Dandar to pay damages, and further ordered Dandar to file a motion to withdraw in the Brennan action. Id.

“In compliance with Judge Beach’s order, Dandar immediately filed in the Brennan ... case a motion entitled ‘Unopposed Involuntary Motion to Withdraw as Counsel for Plaintiff.’ ” Id. at ¶ 50. On April 22, 2010, the district court denied Dandar’s motion to withdraw. Id. at ¶ 51. On May 6, 2010, “Judge Beach, as demanded by Defendants, and in furtherance of the conspiracy,” directed Dandar to appear personally and to show cause as to why he and the Dandar Law Firm should not be held in indirect criminal contempt of his prior orders ..., citing Dandar’s ‘involuntary’ motion to withdraw in federal court as a willful violation of his prior orders.” Id.

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924 F. Supp. 2d 1331, 2013 WL 593923, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dandar-v-church-of-scientology-flag-service-organization-inc-flmd-2013.