California judge orders former Patriarch Fouad Twal to testify in jurisdiction phase of $31 million case
10/17/2021 - 12:31
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A California judge, Donald Alverz of the superior court of the county of St. Bernandino has ruled that the former Patriarch of the Latin Church in Jerusalem Fouad Twal is obliged to appear in a deposition hearing in the jurisdiction phase of a case. In the case, Benjamin Seryani vs. the Vatican, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the American University of Madaba has been submitted to the court back in September 2019. The plaintiff is seeking damages in the amount of$31 million in unpaid contracts that include restaurants and bus services for the university.
The decision listed in a 20-page judgment issued on October 8th compels a knowledgeable person at the University to also testify in the court case. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is compelled to provide ten years of financial documents relating to transfers of money from the state of California to the Jerusalem church.
Although the judge didn’t take into consideration the requests to waive the former patriarch from testimony it denied the request by lawyers of Seryany for any further testimony from the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher being satisfied that their testimony and documents suffice. The Knights testified that in 2020 they transferred nine million US dollars in donations to the Latin Patriarchate among them $2 million from the state of California.
below is the entire court decision
