Canadian Politics Today

A California appellate court has upheld a $4-plus million judgment against Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., the top organizational body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in a case brought by a woman who alleges she was molested as a child by a church elder in 2006.

The ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal leaves in place terminating sanctions and a $4,016,152.39 judgment after Watchtower refused to hand over a trove of documents it received in response to a 1997 letter sent to Jehovah’s Witness congregations concerning known molesters in the church.

Storey noted that he and his firm have litigated over the 1997 documents in two prior cases that have gone to the Court of Appeal and that highly redacted copies of some of the material have been handed over in a fourth case currently pending in Orange County.

“We litigate cases of sexual abuse all day, every day,” he said of his firm. “I’ve never had a defendant other than Watchtower tell a court point blank, ‘I won’t comply.’”

“Affirmatively understanding the order and saying ‘I’m not going to do it.’ … That’s not something I ever see.”