Diocese Seeking Fees From Breakaway Faction in Orange County Superior Court.
Here is one brewing in the backyards of where the contributors to this blog base their practices.
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is seeking to recover its attorney’s fees and court costs from the church and certain members who voted to break away from the Episcopal Church in 2004, which led to a bitter legal battle over St. James’ Via Lido campus. Eventually, the dispute went all the way to the California Supreme Court, which ruled in the diocese’s favor in January 2009.
The fees/costs motion is slated to be heard on May 15, 2009 in Orange County Superior Court. The diocese has not disclosed how much it will seek, which has led St. James’ attorney Daniel Lula to guess it will be an “obscene amount.”
More information on this fee battle can be found in Brianna Bailey’s article, “Diocese seeks legal fees,” which was posted on May 2, 2009 at the Daily Pilot website.
But cf.: Eskimo Methodist Episcopal Church. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs