Attorneys for the leader of the Church of Scientology have filed court papers asking a judge to quash summons of their client in Leah Remini's civil harassment/defamation complaint, maintaining that their client was not properly served with the court papers by a process server.
Remini's original suit was brought Aug. 2 in Los Angeles Superior Court and included allegations of civil harassment, stalking, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. Scientology leader David Miscavige is a co-defendant with the church and its Religious Technology Center in both the first suit and in an updated complaint filed Aug. 29.
But in court papers filed Wednesday with Judge Randolph M. Hammock, Miscavige's lawyers contend that the "substitute service" Remini's attorneys assert was proper does not meet the legal test because neither of the two Scientology-related locations visited by the process server are Miscavige's residence nor his usual place of business.
"Substitute service is not permitted," Miscavige's attorneys state in their court papers. "Neither of these locations is a proper place to serve Mr. Miscavige. Additionally, plaintiff did not first make reasonably diligent efforts to serve Mr. Miscavige personally."
Remini "seems to believe that her statutory obligation to serve Mr. Miscavige can be sidestepped by unilaterally selecting any Church of Scientology or related organization around the world and throwing papers at a security guard," Miscavige's lawyers further maintain in their court papers.
Richard Paap, a security guard for a company not affiliated with the church, stated in a sworn declaration that Remini's process server made the second of two trips to the church's Franklin Avenue Celebrity Centre on Sept. 22 asking about Miscavige.
The process server later showed a stack of papers and Paap moved away from him, Paap says.
"The process server then threw the papers on the ground and said that David Miscavige was now served," Paap says, adding that the server did not ask who employed the guard.
A hearing on Miscavige's motion to quash summons is scheduled Feb. 14.
The 53-year-old Remini seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. "The King of Queens" star's suit states that Scientologists "have undertaken a campaign to ruin and destroy the life and livelihood of Leah Remini, a former Scientologist of nearly 40 years, a two-time Emmy-award winning producer, actress and New York Times best-selling author, after she was deemed a suppressive person and declared fair game by Scientology in 2013, when she publicly departed Scientology."
For the past decade, Remini has been stalked, surveilled, harassed, threatened, intimidated and "been the victim of intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors via hundreds of Scientology-controlled and coordinated social media accounts that exist solely to intimidate and spread misinformation," the suit alleges.
In the amended suit, Remini maintains that since starting her litigation she and others have been the victims of "continued, aggressive harassment."
Remini released the book "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology" in 2015, and hosted the A&E documentary series "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath" from 2016-19.
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