Judge dismisses lawsuit blaming polygamist church for loss of wife
 
Kingman Daily Miner
 
Salt Lake City (AP) - A man who blames the leaders of a polygamist church for his wife's decision to divorce him and become the second plural wife of another man has failed in another attempt to pursue his alienation of affection claim.

A federal court has dismissed Jason Miles Williams' lawsuit against the estate of Rulon Jeffs, the late leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

U.S. District Court Judge Dale Kimball said in a decision released late Friday that Williams' arguments fell short because they were identical to those offered and rejected by 5th District Judge James L. Shumate and the Utah Court of Appeals in recent years.

In the alienation of affection lawsuit filed last October, Williams claimed his former wife was counseled by Jeffs and other elders of the church to leave their Colorado City, Ariz., home and divorce him.

Williams is a former member of the church, most of whose members live in the border cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Jeffs died on Sept. 8, 2002 at 92.

The $20 million lawsuit also had asked that church leaders "cease and desist from unlawfully influencing (his) children's beliefs."

Williams' attorney, Christopher Edwards of Hurricane, had claimed that the federal court was the proper venue for the lawsuit because a similar suit filed in state court in 1999 was unsuccessful.

Last July, the Utah Court of Appeals upheld Shumate’s dismissal, finding that Arizona law, which does not recognize alienation of affection, applied. The judges also found Williams failed to prove his suffering warranted recovery for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Kimball said he agreed with the reasoning of the Utah Court of Appeals.

That court "found that Williams' emotional distress cause of action, claiming that he suffered the loss of his wife's love and affection as well as future of his family, did not rise to the level of outrageousness necessary for the claim to be actionable," Kimball wrote.

"Although (Williams') causes of action in this case are now styled as civil rights claims, they are based on the same set of facts that were basis for (his) state court action," the judge concluded.
 
KingmanDailyMiner.com
Originally published February 18, 2003
 
Back