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PRESS RELEASE 

NOVEMBER 5, 1993   

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RE: SCIENTOLOGY  DECISION 

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL  LAWRENCE WOLLERSHEIM  AT F.A.C.T.,
303-650-3650

Scientology Loses Critical Multi-Million Dollar Court Battle
The California Court of Appeal has just issued a final order in Wollersheim v. Scientology which 
finally allows Lawrence Wollersheim to begin executing the collection of his unanimous 1986 jury 
verdict and judgment against Scientology for $2.5 million dollars. With accumulated interest and 
court costs accrued during Scientology's numerous appeals the judgment is now worth about $6 
million dollars.
The case has been a highly publicized 14 year court battle that has been estimated to have cost 
Scientology between $50 and $70 million dollars and that has been up and down through the 
California Appellate Court four times, the California Supreme Court three times, and the U.S. 
Supreme Court three times.  During the trial, Wollersheim's experts testified that Scientology's 
"auditing" and "disconnect" practices constituted `brainwashing' and `thought reform' akin to what 
the Chinese and North Koreans practiced on American prisoners of war.
In their scathing decision the California Court of Appeal said, "Church practices [of Scientology] 
conducted in a coercive environment are not qualified to be voluntary religious practices entitled 
to first amendment religious freedom guarantees....We hold that the state has a compelling interest 
in allowing its citizens to recover for serious emotional injuries they suffer through religious 
practices they are coerced into accepting."                                        
The court also said, "A religious practice which takes place in the context of this level of 
coercion1 has less religious value than one the recipient engages in voluntarily. Even more 
significantly, it poses a greater threat to society to have coerced religious practices inflicted on its 
citizens....Such conduct is too outrageous to be protected under the constitution and too unworthy 
to be privileged under the law of torts."
Observers of Scientology say the precedent setting decision will no doubt encourage thousands of 
other silent victims of Scientology's coercive psychological practices to step forward and seek 
restitution. Wollersheim said he is confident he will soon be able to collect his judgment against 
the highly contentious Scientology organization. He said he has liens on about $100 million 
dollars worth of Scientology's property. He also said, if necessary, he will immediately begin to 
force Scientology into involuntary bankruptcy if they claim the corporation from which they 
allegedly fraudulently conveyed out over $290 million dollars worth of assets now has no money.   
This information on Wollersheim v. Scientology {California Appellate court no. 
B023193, (LASC no. C332827,) 2nd district, div. 7, 1986} was brought to you by  
F.A.C.T. Inc.  F.A.C.T. is a nonprofit research and educational public service whose 
goal it is to inform the public about human rights abuse caused by the growing use of 
coercive  psychological tactics. F.A.C.T.'s seeks to help protect freedom of thought, 
choice, association, and speech from the dangers of coercive  psychological tactics.

END

 
 
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