Judge Issues Ruling in Scientology / Danny Masterson Lawsuit

bake where is bake at my name is Blake do you want to go to war bake I'm for real a Aon a Aon is right here welcome back everyone for some more sptv where every day is a great day not to be an a cult we have an update this morning in one of the five lawsuits against Scientology and its leader David miscavage this one is a little disappointing there's a hearing this morning 9:00 a.m. Pacific time in the lawsuit brought by three of Danny Masterson's victims we're talking about Jane do one two and three this lawsuit also includes Jane do 3's husband Cedric Bixler ofala and another one of Danny Masterson's victims named babet ralis this lawsuit was filed five years ago and was put on hold during Danny Masterson's trials once Danny mson was convicted and sent to prison this lawsuit was taken off of its stay and got going again the update unfortunately this morning is that it looks like this lawsuit is going to be put on ice for approximately a year while Scientology appeals a ruling in the case this lawsuit currently has five causes of action and five plaintiffs the first cause of action is stalking the second is physical invasion of privacy the third is constructive invasion of privacy the fourth is intentional infliction of emotional distress the fifth is loss of Consortium now Scientology filed an anti-sap motion against this lawsuit specifically against the first fourth and fifth causes of action scientology's position was that as a notorious International multi-billion dollar family destroying human trafficking cult it is in fact their constitutionally protected activity to stalk to intentionally inflict emotional distress and to cause loss of Consortium because of course it is the judge summarily dismissed the entire anti-s slap motion and Scientology is predictably appealing that ruling in the meantime the judge ordered a few months ago that this entire lawsuit be put on a stay now the plaintiff understandably felt that putting the entire lawsuit on a stay wasn't necessary because no matter what happens with the anti-s slap stuff there are still two entire causes of action that Scientology never challenged and is not appealing and no matter what happens with the anti-s slap stuff these two causes of action remain and Discovery and depositions should be able to move forward on the physical invasion of privacy and constructive invasion of privacy causes of action this would allow them to move forward with trying to depose David mavich Danny masteron and many other high-profile scientologists and represent resentatives of Scientology itself so the plaintiff's team has filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider his decision to put the entire case on hold and that is the hearing that is occurring uh this morning 9:00 a.m. Pacific late last night the judge published his tentative ruling on this matter and unfortunately it looks like he's going to rule against the plaintiffs and that the reason for doing so is that the precise procedure for making this request for reconsideration wasn't exactly followed and also that the window the correct window to make this request has already closed which is a bummer so let me show you parts of this tentative ruling we have it right here judge CRA in the case Chrissy Carell Bixler at all versus Church of Scientology International at all requested relief in order reconsidering the scope of the stay articulated in the Court's May 29 ruling on plaintiff's motion for leave to file a second amended complaint tentative ruling motion for reconsideration is denied there is another element to uh the proceedings of this particular lawsuit that I didn't specify that as a Layman my interpretation of all this leads me to believe this was a contributing factor to possibly this particular request being denied and that has to do with the fact that um well three things are happening at the same time you have Scientology trying to appeal a decision regarding uh three of the five causes of action the plaintiffs have in the case history both requested permission to uh file a second amended complaint to add additional complaints and to add an additional plaintiff that matter has not been put to rest yet at the same time you have the plaintiff's team asking the judge for permission to move forward with Discovery and depositions regarding two of the five at least two of the five causes of action in the first amended complaint so again as a lman I can see where the matter might be confusing enough aside from the procedural issues that the judge has taken issue with the matter might be confusing enough that the best thing to do right now is we're going to take take a timeout first of all the timeout is so the appeal process can uh carry on and be completed which the chances of Scientology winning on this appeal seems to be very very low but also the plaintiff's team uh seems to need to actually make a final decision on are they asking to move forward with the first amended complaint or are they still asking for permission to leave to make a second amended complaint the additional claims that the plaintiff's team was looking to add to this lawsuit was the sexual abuse claims against Danny Masterson remember this lawsuit was not about Danny Masterson's sexual assaults this lawsuit was essentially about harassment but they were potentially looking to add now that Danny has been convicted the sexual abuse claims into the lawsuit they were looking to add civil racketeering claims against well the the defendants in the lawsuit and they were looking to add another plaintiff one of Danny Masterson's victims Trish vessie all of that is also pending and my personal opinion for right now is that that may also be contributing factor to the judge's decision to be like nope we're taking a time out for now now even without adding any additional plaintiffs or complaints to the lawsuit this suit's going to be on ice for like a year I believe there's a very good likelihood that if they were to actually add the additional complaints to this lawsuit instead of just making it a separate lawsuit if they were to add the additional complaints and add another plaintiff uh my understanding is that restarts the clock Scientology can now make new anti-s slap motions against the new complaints and all this kind of stuff that could potentially extend the lawsuit for many more additional years but it may make more sense and be less messy and take less time for new complaints and new plaintiffs to be the subject of a new lawsuit but what do I know guys I grew up in a cult all right let's look at some other items in this tentative ruling plaintiffs contend the court should reconsider its May 29 ruling whereby it stayed the entire action pending defendants appeal of the anti-s slap motions because they were not afforded the opportunity to brief the issue on the scope of this day defendants argue plaintiffs did have an opportunity to brief the issue and strategically chose not to defendants further argue that the plaintiff's request is procedurally flawed as there are no new facts or evidence supporting reconsideration as an initial matter the court notes that plaintiffs did not provide notice of the May 29th ruling as they were ordered to do notice is the triggering event for the deadline to file a motion for reconsideration now I got to admit when I first read that I did not understand what it was saying I thought well certainly it's the court or the judge who should be notifying parties of a of a ruling why would the plaintiffs need to notify the defendants of a ruling so anyway I looked it up and here's what I found that that seemed to make sense it says formal notification the party who receives the ruling often the winning party is responsible for notifying the other party or parties this is usually done by serving them with a copy of the written ruling further it says starting the appeal appeal process the notice of a ruling also triggers the timeline for filing an appeal once notice is provided the clock starts ticking on the deadline to file an appeal if the party disagrees with the ruling again I'm going to check with my lawyer friend Zach but it seems that if the plaintiffs were going to appeal the official first step of the process is to formally serve the defendants with a written copy of the judge's order that they would be appealing even though the defendants were there in the courtroom when the judge's decision was made again not sure if I'm interpreting it correctly but that is the only way this paragraph of the tenative ruling makes sense to me so that's what I'm going with for now okay it continues on with as to the merits of the plaintiff's motion for reconsideration the court is not persuaded that relief is warranted first plaintiff's contention that they were not afforded sufficient opportunity to brief the issue of the scope of the stay is not well taken defendants argued that the stay encompassed all of plaintiff's claims in their opposition to the motion for leave to file a second amended complaint plaintiff's reply did not address the scope of the stay furthermore at the hearing on their motion plaintiffs requested further briefing which the court addressed plaintiffs had 69 days to further brief the scope of the stay issue before the hearing since it was continued from March 20th to May 29th indeed there was no surprise that defendants would likely file such an appeal as such plaintiffs have not demonstrated new facts or circumstan ances warranting relief accordingly the Court denies plaintiff's motion for reconsideration well that is a bummer it does seem to me that if this um request had been made earlier and in a different way that perhaps it would have succeeded and um it just really is kind of a bummer I I guess this is just one of those examples where sometimes in a court of law it is not about what is right it is about whether it is done right so anyway that's a bummer that's a bummer it looks like we won't be hearing anything about this lawsuit for close to a year so guys what about the other lawsuits I said there's five lawsuits so of course there's this lawsuit which is the Bixler lawsuit there's Leah Remy's lawsuit against Scientology and David mavich that is also currently on appeal again following rulings in an anti-s slap motion also that gets a little more complicated Leah Remy's entire legal team had to step down uh another firm has stepped in to represent Leah during the appeals process it's not entirely clear whether that team is only there for the appeal uh for the appeal process or whether they're planning on continuing to represent Leah in that litigation so there's big question marks surrounding that lawsuit there is another lawsuit brought by janeo W against David mavich Church of Scientology some other Scientology entities and a seaorg member named Gavin Potter who janeda one was married to this is essentially a child essay and trafficking lawsuit that is moving forward full steam ahead there's a lawsuit brought by a woman named Valerie Haney who used to work directly for David mavich and Shelley mavich she escaped from scientology's International Management base in the trunk of the car of a non- Scientologist who was on The Base shooting a film for Scientology that's one of the lawsuits where Scientology succeeded in getting the entire thing diverted into internal religious arbitration and so it looks like Scientology has for now killed that lawsuit there is another trafficking lawsuit against David mavich and Scientology and other entities by three former seor members GNE Baxter Laura Baxter and vesa Paris again in that lawsuit Scientology has succeeded in getting it diverted into internal religious arbitration and so for all intents and purposes for now has killed that lawsuit but until it's done dead and buried I consider it to be an active law La suit so out of the five active lawsuits you've got two that have been derailed into internal arbitration you've got two that are on appeal for anti-s slap reasons those are going to be on ice for about a year both of them and so the one that is like actively moving forward ahead is the one uh against Gavin Potter uh David mavich Bridge Publications Church of Scientology International Etc that's the landscape of Scientology litigation right now as there are updates in any of these lawsuits I will of course do my best to bring them to you thank you everyone for watching thank you as always to everyone who watches until the very end and I'll talk to you soon okay if you want to see my rock and roll songs get quiet on this guitar and if you want to see a different one of my videos [Music] oh then you could click why inside here if you have subscribed or not subscribe right here by