Directors of D.C. religious nonprofit win complete dismissal of claims alleging fiduciary violations and breach of contract
Client(s) Moon, Hyun Jin
Jones Day secured dismissal of a longstanding suit against a D.C. religious nonprofit and its directors. In August 2022, the D.C. Court of Appeals reversed a $530 million judgment against the directors, vindicating their rights under the First Amendment. On remand, Jones Day successfully advanced arguments blocking the plaintiffs' last-ditch efforts to resuscitate their suit. The case arose out of a schism within the Unification Church movement, a religion founded by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court seeking to wrest control of UCI, a religious non-profit, from its chairman, Jones Day client Dr. Hyun Jin Moon, and other directors. The Superior Court ultimately sided with the plaintiffs, ordering removal of Dr. Moon and other directors from the board and imposing hundreds of millions of dollars in personal liability, finding that the directors violated their fiduciary duties by "fundamentally alter[ing]" the nonprofit's articles of incorporation and making certain charitable donations. The D.C. Court of Appeals reversed, agreeing with Jones Day’s long-advanced position that plaintiffs' suit would require the courts to wade impermissibly into theological matters and render answers to "religious questions," in violation of the First Amendment. On remand, plaintiffs attempted to reopen discovery years after it closed. The D.C. Superior Court agreed with Jones Day that the plaintiffs had already received "extensive discovery" and had asserted a "frivolous" basis for their request. On Jones Day's motion, the D.C. Superior Court then dismissed the remainder of the plaintiffs’ case, finding that the plaintiffs lacked the necessary special-interest standing to challenge the actions of a nonprofit, as Jones Day had long urged.
Moon v. Family Federation for World Peace & Unification International, No. 2011-CA-003721 (D.C. Super. Ct.); No. 20-CV-0714, 2022 WL 3652744 (D.C.)
