1 RABINOWITZ~
BOUDIN, ST
AND ARD,
KRINSKY
& L1EB RMAN,
LLP
2 Eric
M.
Lieberman
pro hac vice
applied for)
61
BroadwaJ;..~uite 1800 3 New York,
l
l
r 10006 Telephone: 212.254.1111 4 Facsunile: 212.674.4614 5
KENDALL
BRILL
& KELLY, LLP
Bert H.
Deixler (70614) 6 10100 Santa
Monica
Bfvd.
0
Suite 1725
Los
Angeles, California 9 067 7 Telephone: 310.556.2700 Facsimile: 310.556.2705
8
Attorneys
for
Plaintiff
9
Church ofScientology International
10
11
12
13
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA WESTERN DIVISION
CHURCH
OF
SCIENTOLOGY
14 INTERNATIONAL,
15
16
v. Plaintiff, · 17
LAURA ANN
DeCRESCENZO,
aka
LAURA
A.
DIECKMAN,
18
19 20
21
22 23 24
25
26 27 28
328422.1
Defendant. Case No.
COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTION RELIEF
COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTION RELIEF
Case 2:17-cv-09158-GW-SK Document 1 Filed 12/21/17 Page 1 of 11 Page ID #:1
1
1.
Plaintiff Church
of
Scientology International
( CSI )
brings this action 2 for declaratory and injunctive relief to enjoin defendant Laura DeCrescenzo 3 ( DeCrescenzo ) from prosecuting a certain lawsuit ( the state court lawsuit ) 4 pending in the Superior Court
of
the State
of
California, Los Angeles County ( the 5 Superior Court ) entitled
DeCrescenzo
v.
Church
of
Scientology International, et
6
ano.,
No. BC411018. The ground for this lawsuit is that a prior final judgment
of
7 this court precludes DeCrescenzo from prosecuting the merits
of
the state court 8 lawsuit,
or
the state court from hearing or deciding it.
9
10 2.
JURISDICTION
This case arises under Article III, Article IV, Section 1 (the Full Faith
11
and Credit Clause), and Article VI, Clause 2 (the Supremacy Clause)
of
the
12
Constitution
of
the United States; the Due Process Clause
of
the Fourteenth
13
Amendment to the Constitution
of
the United States; the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C.
14
§
1651; the Full Faith and Credit Act,
17
U.S.C.
§
1738; the third exception set forth
15
in the Anti-Injunction Act, 22 U.S.C. §2283 (permitting a federal court to issue an
16
injunction to stay proceedings in a state court to protect or effectuate its
17
judgments ); and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C.
§§
2201-2202.
18
3. This court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §1331 and §1651, as well as 19 its jurisdiction over the original action in which it rendered the judgment that 20 plaintiff seeks to enforce by bringing this action.
21
22
4.
PARTIES
Plaintiff CSI is the senior ecclesiastical management church
of
the 23 Scientology religion. CSI is formally recognized by the Intern
al
Revenue Service as 24 a tax-exempt charitable and religious corporation that oversees Scientology's
25 ministering
of
religious and other services and overall ecclesiastical 26 management. CSI is a named defendant in the state court lawsuit pending in the 27 Superior Court.
28
328422
.1
1
COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTION RELIEF
Case 2:17-cv-09158-GW-SK Document 1 Filed 12/21/17 Page 2 of 11 Page ID #:2
1
5.
Defendant DeCrescenzo
is
the plaintiff in the state court lawsuit 2 pending in the Superior Court. DeCrescenzo
is
a former staff member
of
CSI, and 3 brought the state court lawsuit seeking damages for her experiences in that position. 4 Upon information and belief, DeCrescenzo
is
now a resident
of
New Mexico.
5
FACTS
6
6.
On April
2,
2009, almost five years after she terminated her 7 relationship with CSI, defendant DeCrescenzo filed the state court lawsuit, alleging 8 six state law causes
of
action based on allegations concerning her relationship with 9 CSI from 1991-2004. Prior to CSI's response, DeCrescenzo filed her First Amended
10
Complaint ( FAC ) on May
19,
2009.
11
7.
DeCrescenzo's FAC alleged that she was coerced to work for CSI from
12
1991
to 2004 at below minimum wage compensation, doing unspecified clerical
13
and secular work
[F
AC
r
12], that she worked excessive hours without overtime
14
compensation and with insufficient time
off
[F
AC
r
2 7]; that throughout her
15
relationship with CSI, she was under the undue influence
of
CSI and its agents
16
[FAC
r
39]; that CSI blackmail[ed] her by subjecting her to a sec checking 1 7 procedure whereby she was interrogated on a primitive lie detector known
as
an
e-
18
meter
[F
AC
r r
86-87] to keep her from leaving her staff position, including by
19
threats that she would be declared a suppressive person and an enemy
of
the 20 church and 'disconnected' from family and friends [FAC
r
25]; and that
as
a result
21
she would be harassed and attacked by the Scientology enterprise.
Ibid.)
22
DeCrescenzo specifically asserted in her F AC that for these reasons and others,
23
[CSI] should be estopped from using a statute
of
limitations defense
to
avoid or limit 24 damages.
Ibid.)
DeCrescenzo alleged that she eventually decided to leave CSI
25
by staging a simulated suicide attempt to encourage the Church to dismiss her
[F
AC 26
r
36].
Finally, she claimed that only years after she left did she conduct research on 27 the internet to find out what the 'religion'
of
Scientology is all about [FAC
r
42],
28
and that she only recently learned that CSI may have a legal responsibility for its
328422
.1
2
COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTION RELIEF
Case 2:17-cv-09158-GW-SK Document 1 Filed 12/21/17 Page 3 of 11 Page ID #:3