Appeals Court Rules for LDS Church in Long-Running Tithing Lawsuit
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on August 31 against nine former donors who sought the return of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tithing to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a consolidated case combining four lawsuits originally filed in Utah, California, Tennessee, and Washington. The donors claimed the church misled them about how their contributions would be used. The three-judge panel found the donors waited too long to bring their fraud claims, ruling that widespread media coverage of the underlying allegations had already put them on notice of the potential wrongdoing years earlier. The judges wrote, "We see no reversible error."
The decision hands the church a win in what had been the last major tithing lawsuit still active in federal court. The plaintiffs' attorneys have said they intend to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, though the justices have not indicated whether they will take up the case.
