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5995

Lawrence E. Heller, Esq., Bar No. 69770
TURNER, GERSTENFELD, WILK & TIGERMAN
8383 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 510
Beverly Hills, California 90211
(213) 657-3100

Attorneys for Defendants
AUTHOR SERVICES, INC.

 

 

“SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

BENT CORYDON

    Plaintiff,

vs.

CHURCH OFSCIENTOLOGY
INTERNATIONAL, INC.,
etc., et al.,

    Defendants.

AND RELATED CROSS-ACTIONS

 
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CASE No. No. C 694 401

NOTICE OF MOTION AND
MOTION OF DEFENDANT AUTHOR
SERVICES, INC. TO DELAY OR
PREVENT THE TAKING OF
CERTAIN THIRD PARTY
DEPOSITIONS BY PLAINTIFF;
MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND
AUTHORITIES; DECLARATIONS OF
LAWRENCE E. HELLER AND
HOWARD SCHOMER IN
SUPPORT THEREOF

DATE: November 16, 1989
TIME: 9:00 a.m.
DEPT: 44

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    TO: PLAINTIFF AND HIS ATTORNEYS OF RECORD HEREIN.

    PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that on November 16, 1989 at 9.:00 a.m.,

or as soon thereafter as counsel can be heard, in Department 44

of the above-entitled Court located at 111 North Hill Street,

Los Angeles, California, defendant AUTHOR SERVICES, INC.

("defendant ASI" hereinafter) will move the Court for an order

to restrain plaintiff from taking certain third party

depositions.
 

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5996

    This application is made on the ground that great and

irreparable harm will result to defendant ASI unless a

restraining order is issued enjoining plaintiff from taking

certain third party depositions, or conditioning those

depositions upon a showing of relevance.

    This Motion will be based upon this Notice, the attached

Memorandum of Points and Authorities, the pleadings, records and

files in this action, and such evidence as may be presented at

the hearing of the Motion.

Dated: October 31st, 1989 TURNER, GERSTENFELD, WILK & TIGERMAN
By:
Lawrence E. Heller
Attorneys for Defendants
AUTHOR SERVICES, INC.
 

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5997

    MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES

 

    Approximately two and one-half (2-1/2) years ago various

Scientology entities, including some of the defendants herein,

settled over a dozen cases involving hundreds of millions of

dollars in alleged damages. Between six (6) to ten (10) of

those cases were pending in this court and the Federal Court of

the Central District of California.

    One such case, which was not settled, entitled Wollersheim

v. Church of Scientology of California, Case No. S011790 was

intensely litigated in this very Court for close to six (6)

years. That case culminated in a trial which lasted

approximately eight (8) months, tying up one of this Court's

courtrooms and judges exclusively for that period of time.

During the course of the Wollersheim litigation, various issues

were appealed, in one such instance resulting in a six (6) to

eight (8) month stay of that litigation issued by the Honorable

Sandra Day O'Connor, Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

The Wollersheim litigation has recently been partly affirmed and

partly reversed by the California Court of Appeals, and all

parties expect that the appellate process will continue for at

least another two (2) years.

    Recognizing the tremendous time and financial burdens which

litigation of this nature placed not only upon the litigants and

their attorneys, but the courts involved as well, over a half

dozen attorneys, including various California attorneys, entered

into what can only be characterized as "herculean" settlement

efforts. Those efforts ultimately resulted in the settlement of
 

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5998

virtually all of the "Wollersheim-like" cases (where former

Scientology staff members or parishioners instituted litigation

against Scientology). Those settlements alleviated the truly

gargantuan time and financial resources which would have been

wasted in the absence of such a settlement. To effect these

settlements also required an exercise of good faith on behalf of

adverse litigants and attorneys who had been fiercely battling

for a number of years prior to entering into the settlements.

    One of the key ingredients to completing these settlements,

insisted upon by all parties involved, was strict

confidentiality respecting: (1) the Scientology parishioner or

staff member's experiences within the Church of Scientology; (2)

any knowledge possessed by the Scientology entities concerning

those staff members or parishioners; and (3) the terms and

conditions of the settlements themselves. Peace has reigned

since the time the interested parties entered into the

settlements, all parties having exercised good faith in carrying

out the terms of the settlement, including the obligations of

confidentiality.

    Comes now the plaintiff herein, BENT CORYDON, and acting

the role of a one man wrecking crew, he serves multiple

subpoenas in a wholesale manner upon these former plaintiffs

(and in some cases defendants); seeking material totally

irrelevant to the issues involved in his litigation.

    Without any question, CORYDON's intent in serving these

various subpenas requesting depositions and the production of

documents is to drive a wedge between these settling parties, in

an illegal attempt to extort a settlement of his own from the
 

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5999

defendants herein. Even a glance at the Request for Documents

served as part of CORYDON's subpoena duces tecum re deposition

upon these settling parties indicates that he has no interest in

any issues respecting plaintiff's case. Rather, CORYDON appears

to be on a mission to torpedo what can only be characterized as

good faith, effective settlements which have alleviated a vast

burden upon this Court. (See subpena served upon one Homer

Schomer, an individual who had sued various Scientology entities

and this moving defendant in the Federal Court of the Central

District of California, attached hereto as Exhibit "A"1).

    Attached to these moving papers is the declaration of one

of the litigants who settled against Scientology, the aforesaid

Homer Schomer. Mr. Schomer's declaration, conclusively exhibits

that he has no evidence concerning CORYDON or CORYDON's

relationship with any Scientology entity, is perhaps the best

evidence of CORYDON's bad faith in attempting to effect the

subject deposition discovery.

    The other third parties CORYDON has subpenaed to deposition

that ASI knows of have even less information concerning CORYDON.

For instance one of the potential deponents who CORYDON has been

trying to serve is attorney Michael J. Flynn, a Boston lawyer

involved in most of the settlements which transpired some two

and one-half (2-1/2)years ago.

///


1Even a cursory review of the documents requested in Mr.
Schomer's subpena indicate that they have nothing to do with Mr.
CORYDON's case. They relate solely to the Settlement Agreement
and documents attendant to that settlement. It is inconceivable
that any of these documents could be relevant, even pursuant to
discovery standards, to any issue in the instant litigation.
 

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6000

    CORYDON and his attorney, Toby L. Plevin, obviously feel

that they have hit upon a weak spot within the Church of

Scientology's resolve to effectively defend this litigation.

Their tactic is to illegally threaten to compel by subpena

disclosure of confidential material irrelevant to the issues in

his case. The fact that CORYDON's and Ms. Plevin's litigation

tactics are in bad faith and an abuse of this Court's process

appears to be of no avail to them.

    CORYDON has been in litigation with most of the defendants

herein for approximately eight (8) years. CORYDON sought

dismissal of the litigation which he had previously instituted

in the County of Riverside prior to the time that it was to go

to trial in that Court, after he had litigated that case for

over five (5) years. CORYDON thereafter instituted this

litigation, clearly once again with no intent of going to trial

on the merits, but rather in an attempt to "blackmail" these

defendants through an attack upon the good faith settlements

into which they had previously entered.

    This moving party, (AUTHOR SERVICE, INC.) which was a party

to at least one of the aforementioned settlements beseaches this

Court to prevent CORYDON and/or his attorney from engaging in

these unethical tactics under the guise of free wheeling

discovery. These parties would ask this Court to issue a

protective order preventing these depositions from going forward

///

///

///
 

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6001

at least until CORYDON and his attorney have exhibited the

relevance of these depositions.

Dated: October 31, 1989

 

TURNER, GERSTENFELD, WILK & TIGERMAN
By: [signed]
Lawrence E. Heller
Attorneys for Defendants
AUTHOR SERVICES, INC.
 

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6002

DECLARATION OF LAWRENCE E. HELLER

 

    I, LAWRENCE E. HELLER, declare as follows:

    1. I am an attorney at law duly licensed to practice

before all of the Courts of the State of California and am a

principal in the law firm of Turner, Gerstenfeld, Wilk &

Tigerman. In said capacity, I am responsible for the defense of

the within action on behalf of defendants AUTHOR SERVICES, INC.

("ASI") and BRIDGE PUBLICATIONS, INC. ("BPI"). Furthermore, I

was the attorney for ASI with regard to certain settlements in

which ASI was a settling party which are referred to in these

moving papers. Accordingly, all of the following information is

of my own personal knowledge and I am available and competent to

personally testify thereto if necessary.

    2. I was personally involved in the settlements which are

referred to in these moving papers which transpired some two and

one-half years ago. Those settlements concerned well over a

dozen plaintiff litigants as well as various Church of

Scientology entities and other third parties sued as defendants.

Those settlements also concerned ASI, a defendant in this

matter, which was a co-defendant in one of those many actions.

The settlement negotiations which took place stretched over the

course of several months, culminating in a multi-week session

in a hotel in the city of Los Angeles where most of the lawyers

(and some of the parties) involved in litigation met

extensively.

    3. Settlement negotiations, which were not supervised by

any court, were arduous and, as is often the case in these
 

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6003

instances, sometimes contentious. However, a "universal

settlement" was ultimately entered into between the numerous

parties. The universal settlement provided for non-disclosure

of all facts underlying the litigation as well as non-disclosure

of the terms of the settlements themselves. The non-disclosure

obligations were a key part of the settlement agreements

insisted upon by all parties involved.

    4. The contractual non-disclosure provisions were the one

issue which was not debated by any of the parties or attorneys

involved. In the last two and one half (2-1/2) years the

settlements have been carried out in good faith by all parties.

I consider my contribution, as well as the contribution of the

other attorneys involved in the settlements, to have been of

great benefit to this and other Courts in that it alleviated

literally months upon months of trial time which would have been

necessary had the settlements not been properly effected.

    I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is

true and correct.

Executed this 1st day of November 1989, at Beverly Hills, California.

  [signed]
Lawrence E. Heller
Declarant
 

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This document in .pdf format.

German translation of Heller Declaration

 

§  What's New  ||  Search  ||  Legal Archive  ||  Wog Media  ||  Cult Media  ||  CoW ® ||  Writings  ||  Fun  ||  Disclaimer  ||  Contact  §