Most of the tithing-related claims filed against the church allege that its leadership used tithing donations to purchase investments in stocks, bonds, real property, and agriculture; the plaintiffs claim that they were never informed that their tithes might be used for investment, rather than charitable, purposes.
A federal judge has dismissed a tithing lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, finding that the Utah-based church has no responsibility to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.
The Church of Latter-day Saints-owned Deseret reports that the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that none of the nine plaintiffs are permitted to re-file their lawsuits at a later date.
Sam Penrod, a spokesperson for the church, said that the court made the right decision in choosing to dismiss the lawsuit.
“Tithing donations made by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are an expression of faith and allow the church to fulfill its divine mission,” Penrod said in a statement. “These donations are carefully used and wisely managed, under the direction of senior church leaders. These legal claims brought against the church were rightfully dismissed by the court.”
Attorneys for the nine plaintiffs say that expect their clients will now face even greater challenges in determining how the church uses members’ tithing donations.
“For decades, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have contributed 10% of their hard-earned income as tithes, and they have the right to know how these donations are being used,” attorney Christopher Seeger said in a statement.
As LegalReader.com has reported before, a similar lawsuit was filed in a California-based federal court in 2021. In that case, plaintiff James Huntsman—the brother of former Utah Gov. John Huntsman, Jr.—sought the return of an estimated $5 million he had donated in tithes before leaving the church.
Most of the tithing-related claims filed against the church allege that its leadership used tithing donations to purchase investments in stocks, bonds, real property, and agriculture; the plaintiffs claim that they were never informed that their tithes might be used for investment, rather than charitable, purposes.
The most recent Utah lawsuit alleges that many church members did not know how their tithes were being used until a wave of media reports began driving speculation that funds had been misused.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby determined that it “strains credulity” that “reasonably diligent individuals who had donated substantial sums of money to the church would not have ‘learn[ed] of matters’ described in the report at or near the time of its release,” Shelby wrote.
“[…] And yet plaintiffs filed the earliest of the individual suits underlying the present multidistrict litigation in October 2023, approximately three years and 10 months after the whistleblower report was published,” Shelby wrote.
Shelby stopped short of giving the church everything it wanted: in his decision, he refused to consider the argument that the lawsuit should be dismissed due to a legal precedent sometimes termed “church autonomy doctrine” or “religious autonomy doctrine.”
“[T]he judicial canon of constitutional avoidance requires the court to focus on nonconstitutional failures before reaching the church autonomy doctrine,” Shelby said. “Ultimately, the court does not reach defendants’ church autonomy doctrine arguments here because the pending motions compel dismissal of plaintiffs’ consolidated complaint on other grounds.”
Sources
Federal judge dismisses another tithing lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ
Judge dismisses lawsuit against Mormon church over how it uses donations
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