Beckley, West Virginia Case:


  Complaint:

 

 

Defendants
 

PARTIES

  1. Defendant Raleigh General Hospital is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of West Virginia and its principal place of business is located in Raleigh County, West Virginia. This Defendant is a 275 bed, acute care facility providing the public with general medical and health services. Defendant is a wholly owned subsidiary of HCA, Inc. This Defendant is owned, dominated and controlled by HCA - Hospital Corporation of America, another defendant herein, through a network of subsidiaries and interlocking boards of directors. Defendant has, at all times relevant to this suit, transacted business in Raleigh County, the State of West Virginia, and those transactions gave rise to Plaintiff's cause of action.

  2. Defendant HCA, INC. is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware and its principal place of business is located in Nashville, Tennessee. Defendant is a medical/health care services company. Defendant is a wholly owned subsidiary of and dominated and controlled by herein HCA - Hospital Corporation of America, another defendant herein, through a network of subsidiaries and interlocking boards of directors. Defendant has, at all times relevant to this suit, transacted business in Raleigh County, the State of West Virginia, and those transactions gave rise to Plaintiff's cause of action.

  3. Defendant HCA - Hospital Corporation of America is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware and has as its principal place of business in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a medical/health care services company. This Defendant (formerly named "CHOS Acquisition Corporation") was formed as a subsidiary of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation (formerly named "Columbia Healthcare Corporation"). In 1994, this Defendant acquired by merger HCA-Hospital Corporation of America and thereafter assumed the name of the acquired corporation. At all material times, this Defendant HCA - Hospital Corporation of America, was the parent corporation of Defendants Raleigh General Hospital and HCA, Inc., and owned, controlled and dominated all such Defendants through a network of subsidiaries and interlocking board of directors. Defendant has, at all times relevant to this suit, transacted business in Raleigh County, the State of West Virginia, and those transactions gave rise to Plaintiff's cause of action.

  4. Defendant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (hereinafter the "LDS Church") styles itself as an "unincorporated religious association." The LDS Church conducts its operations throughout the world in 149 nations and territories. It has approximately nine million members worldwide. The LDS Church has its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Defendant has, at all times material to this suit, regularly transacted business in Raleigh County, the State of West Virginia and these transactions gave rise to Plaintiff's cause of action. Additionally, Defendant has caused tortious injury in this state by an act or omission outside the state.

  5. The General Authorities of the LDS Church also have their headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are led by the President of the Church, who with his two counsellors, comprise the First Presidency. Next to the First Presidency in authority is the Council of the Twelve Apostles. Other General Authorities include members of the First and Second Quorums of the Seventy, and a three-man Presiding Bishopric that oversees the temporal affairs of the LDS Church. All Church monies are controlled by the Council on the Disposition of the Tithes. The Council is composed of the First Presidency, the Council of the Twelve Apostles and the Presiding Bishopric. All LDS Church members are required to donate ten percent of their annual income to the LDS Church. The minor plaintiff and her family regularly attended the LDS Church services and tithed to it during all times material to this suit.

  6. The LDS Church owns businesses generating approximately four hundred million dollars a year in revenues. Tithing generates an additional 4.3 billion dollars a year in revenues. All tithes collected worldwide are transferred on orders of Defendant LDS Church to the Zion National Bank in Salt Lake City to the account of Defendant LDS Church.

  7. To facilitate its secular and religious purpose, the LDS Church has formed two holding companies: Corporation of the President and Corporation of the Presiding Bishop. The object of these corporations is to "hold and dispose of such real and personal property as may be conveyed to or acquired by said Corporation for the benefit of the members of LDS Church..." Both holding companies are dominated and controlled by LDS Church to such an extent that the holding companies exist merely as the alter ego of the LDS Church and have no independent existence.

  8. The President of the LDS Church is Gordon B. Hinckley (hereinafter "Hinckley"). Hinckley and his two counselors, Thomas S. Monson (hereinafter "Monson") and James E. Faust (hereinafter "Faust"), make up "Monson") and James E. Faust (hereinafter "Faust"), make up the LDS Church's First Presidency, which is the highest governing body of the LIDS Church, and has the ultimate decision-making control over the entire LDS Church. Boyd K. Packer (hereinafter "Packer") is the Acting President of the LDS Church's Council of the Twelve Apostles, which is the second highest ranking governing body of the LDS Church. Hinckley, Monson, Faust, and Packer are sued herein in their capacity as authorized representatives of the LDS Church, and at all times material hereto were the agents, servants or employees of Defendants LDS Church, Corporation of the President and Corporation of the Presiding Bishop, and were acting within the course and scope of said agency and with the permission and consent of the LDS Church.

  9. All proposed budgets of local congregations (known as wards and stakes) must be approved by the Church's General Authorities in Salt Lake City. All monies to fund local wards, such as the Beckley ward, come from the LDS Church, Corporation of the President of the LDS Church or Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church.

  10. Defendant Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (hereinafter "COP") is a corporation sole organized under the laws of the State of Utah in 1923. Defendant holds the copyright to a publication entitled, "Child Abuse, Helps for Ecclesiastical Leaders." This publication governs how matters of child abuse are to be handled by church leaders, from state reporting requirements to acts that can be taken to protect the victims of incest. Defendant LDS Church transfers a portion of assets collected from tithes and profits from worldwide business operations to Defendant COP. Monies held by the COP are then distributed to fund the Church's worldwide operations including operations in West Virginia. Defendant has, at all times material to this suit, transacted business in Raleigh County, the State of West Virginia, and those transactions gave rise to Plaintiff's cause of action. Additionally, Defendant has caused tortious injury in the state by an act or omission outside the state.

  11. Defendant Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (hereinafter "CPB") is a Utah corporation sole, which was organized in 1916 to acquire, hold and dispose of real and personal property conveyed to CPB for the benefit of members of the LDS Church. CPB holds title to more than 10,000 ward buildings and related real property worldwide. Defendant LDS Church transfers a portion of assets collected from tithes and worldwide business operations to Defendant CPB. Monies held by the CPB are then distributed to fund the Church's worldwide operations, including operations in West Virginia. Defendant has, at all times material to this suit, transacted business in Raleigh County, the State of West Virginia, and those transactions gave rise to Plaintiff's cause of action. Additionally, Defendant has caused tortious injury in the state by an act or omission outside the state.

  12. Defendant Hinckley presides over the LDS Church in all leadership and organizational matters. With his two counselors, Defendant Hinckley instructs, directs and controls all aspects of the LDS Church, the CPB and COP, including the allocation and distribution of the LDS Church funds, the use and distribution of the General Handbook of Instructions and the booklet "Child Abuse, Helps for Ecclesiastical Leaders," and the supervision of Bishops and Stake Presidents.

  13. Defendant Monson is the First Counselor in the LDS Church's First Presidency, and is the second most senior member of the LDS Church's Council of the Twelve Apostles. In these capacities, he assists Defendant Hinckley in each of his responsibilities set forth in the preceding paragraph, and ratifies each of his actions. He also directs the actions of the Council of the Twelve Apostles.

  14. Defendant Faust is the Second Counselor in the LDS Church's First Presidency, and is a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. In this capacity, he assists Defendant Hinckley in each of his responsibilities referred to herein, and ratifies each of his actions.

  15. Defendant Packer is the acting President of the LDS Church's Council of the Twelve Apostles. As such, he instructs and directs the entire Council of the Twelve Apostles in its duties and responsibilities, including transacting LDS Church business, and the actions of the LDS Church leaders, including those of Bishops and Stake Presidents.

  16. The President of the CPB currently is Merrill J. Bateman, who is also the Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church. As the Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church, Defendant Merrill J. Bateman is responsible, under the direction of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles, for all temporal and physical affairs of the LDS Church.

     

  17. DOES 13-20, inclusive, are other parties or entities which are liable to the minor Plaintiff for the damages complained of herein, whose identities are presently unknown but will be supplied specifically in these proceedings when they are discovered by the minor Plaintiff, and the minor Plaintiff will seek leave of the Court to amend her Complaint when the identity of these Defendants is determined.

 

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