The FLDS sect’s property trust, since 2005 controlled by the state of Utah, owes more than $2.2 million in back taxes.
Under a Utah judge’s new ruling, people could be evicted from their homes along the Utah-Arizona border if they don’t pay their bills.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided to keep a polygamous sect’s property trust under government control Wednesday, siding, for now, with a state court judge in a heated judicial standoff.
The appellate judges blocked a federal court order that would have temporarily returned control to theFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the first time since the state of Utah took over the trust six years ago.
The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with the issue of who has the final say over state law as part of a long-running battle for control of a communal land trust tied to Warren Jeffs’ polygamous church. The question comes on the heels of a February federal court ruling, which found that the state of Utah violated the religious rights of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when it took over the church’s land trust in 2005.
A federal judge on Friday gave a polygamous sect control of its trust for the first time in six years.
he Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints can manage its properties and businesses, valued at $110 million, but is prohibited from selling those properties or evicting any tenants. The FLDS also must honor existing contracts and leases.
A federal court judge on Tuesday bristled at the notion his ruling in a long-running dispute over control of a polygamous sect’s property trust should be delayed by a potential Utah Supreme Court ruling.
In a decision that could have major implications for a long-running court battle between the state of Utah and the polygamous FLDS sect, a federal judge ruled Thursday that a state takeover of the sect’s property trust six years ago was unconstitutional.
Utah’s state courts seized control of the trust in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement by church leaders, including Warren Jeffs, the newly reinstated head of the church who is currently in jail in Texas pending trial on charges of bigamy, aggravated sexual assault and assault.
Five members of a polygamous church, including two bishops, want a say in how a court-appointed land trust sells a piece of farmland once set aside as a temple site.
Attorneys for the Fundamentalist LDS Church argued before the Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday that a lower court judge violated the constitutional rights Lyle Jeffs and James Oler by keeping them out of a United Effort Plan Trust legal dispute.
The Utah Supreme Court on Friday said a polygamous sect waited too long to object to a state takeover of its historic property trust, rejecting its bid to undo changes made to the United Effort Plan Trust.
The court sided with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, which argued that members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ignored numerous opportunities to participate in the changes to and management of the trust.
The FLDS church and heirs of a former prophet want a Utah judge to remove a fiduciary who oversees a polygamous community’s property trust, alleging the trustee’s actions have left the trust in “decidedly worse” shape than when he took over its management.
They ask the judge to appoint a new fiduciary who does not have “an obvious conflict of interest” — something she has refused to do in the past.
A polygamous sect is asking the Utah Supreme Court to overturn a state court decision that stripped the religious purposes from its communal land trust.
In a court filing Tuesday, attorneys for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints say making the United Effort Plan Trust secular was a violation of the faith’s constitutionally protected religious rights.