By Daoud Kuttab

The $31 million lawsuit by an American businessperson of Jordanian origin against the Vatican, the American University of Madaba (AUM), and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (LPJ) appears to have reached its final appeal stage with his lawyers presenting a 46-page appeal on March 18th.

The publicly available appeal addresses what it considers to be mistakes of the December 2022 decision by the Superior Court of St. Bernardino County rejecting jurisdiction and accuses the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem of a Tortious act. A tortious act occurs “when someone does something that hurts another person and makes them legally responsible for the harm they caused.”

Lawyers for Binyamin Seryani, Robert Spitz, and James Decker, say that their client is the victim of a tortious act by the Jerusalem-based Church which is responsible for Catholics and their institutions in Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus. “Respondents’ tortious acts of inducing Seryani to leave his work behind in California and accept a position with AUM, promising significant compensation with profitable contracts, promising reimbursement for loans he made to carry this project forward, and causing him $30,000,000 in damages.”

Perhaps the harshest element in the appeal is the insistence of Seryani’s lawyers who have been battling a five-year lawsuit for compensation is the accusation in legal documents against the Vatican and the LPJ of forcing him to participate in money laundering, an action he resisted and thus has been suffering contract violations since. The appeal states that the tortious act has taken place by the Catholic Church “while concealing their ultimate intention of using him as their scapegoat for the money laundering scheme stands alone as a sufficient basis for jurisdiction.”

The appeal contained several other claims to prove that their client has jurisdiction to sue the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in California by pointing to checks from California written to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In response to the claims of the lawyer of LPJ that denied any contributions from California to the Church in Jerusalem, Serynai’s lawyer’s appeal stated that “the evidence shows that the Queen of Peace Foundation solicited donations from California-based parishioners, which were then provided to the LPJ.” It further noted that  “a substantial sum of these donations was used to fund the university.”

Lawyers for the American businessperson argued that Jordan would not be a good place to hold the case. “Jordan would not be a suitable forum here. Seryani, for one, cannot enter the country, because he would likely be arrested upon arrival. It further appears that “judgment” in a case initiated in Jordan by Twal against Seryani was “rendered  without Seryani receiving notice.“

Seryani’s appeals lawyer, James Decker, concluded the appeal by stating that “The undisputed evidence, taken as a whole, provides sufficient basis for the exercise of both specific and general jurisdiction by the California trial court. Further, there is no evidence that Jordan would be a more convenient forum. It would be an inconvenient forum for Seryani, who would have great difficulty getting a fair trial, if any, in that forum and would risk his safety going there. For these reasons and those discussed in the Appellants’ Opening Brief, the Court should reverse the trial court’s dismissal of the action and order granting the Respondents’ motion to quash.”

Robert Spitz Seryani’s lawyer told Milhilard.org that the final briefing to the California Court of Appeal is now in the hands of these Justices. “California law only requires that a foreign-based defendant have minimal contact with California to take Jurisdiction over the case.   There was no dispute about the vast amount of evidence supporting Jurisdiction of this case.”

  Spitz who submitted the case back in August 2019 said that Seryani was a California resident at the time he was offered a series of contracts to assist the Latin Patriarchate with the establishment of the American University of Madaba.  “He made a great sacrifice to leave his home in California and participate in the organization and creation of what was envisioned as an institution of higher learning for all young students in the Holy Land.  He was proud to provide his services, experience, and knowledge to this task.”

Spitz also noted that Patriarch Foad Twal wanted the very best equipment and facilities for this new University.   This required significant portions of the contracts to be performed in California.  The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem delivered financial support of a million dollars every year from California residents that went to fund these very same activities of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.  Patriarch, Twal visited California specifically to raise funds for the American University of Madaba.   “There are three Catholic Parishes in California comprised of Arab Americans who have migrated from the Holy Land and attend services every week led by Priests assigned by The Latin Patriarch. Those California residents also donated money to support the establishment of the University.

Spitz noted that “Mr. Seryani is merely seeking to recover all of the damages he sustained when his contracts were abruptly terminated after he refused to participate in the money laundering scheme that had been set up by the Catholic Church.   He purchased a large number of buses and advanced payroll to personally support the University.  Everything he had worked on and done was confiscated.” 

Seryani’s lawyer concluded that he looks forward to the decision of the Appellate Court in California that will open to the door to a full investigation of all the tortious and illegal actions against his client.

 David Colella the California lawyer for the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the other defendants was approached but has not commented by press time on the publicly available documents of this case. The Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem has repeatedly refused to comment but the Patriarch of Jerusalem said to journalists in Italy that the Church will honor the decision of the court.

For further reading see the PDF of the appeal below