Hurdle Blocking Sale of Church Cleared : Judge Throws Out Suit to Restrict Use of ‘Jesus Saves’ Structure

A major obstacle to the sale of the downtown Church of the Open Door--noted for its rooftop “Jesus Saves” signs--was removed Tuesday when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit that would have restricted the use of the Hope Street property to religious purposes.

In dismissing the action, Judge Fred Woods said he could find no trust that mandated using the building for church services and other charitable purposes as one-time church member Lehia May Makini Garcia had argued. In her suit, Garcia claimed that a trust dedicating the property to the “eternal promulgation of the eternal trusts of God’s Holy Word” was contained in a 1919 deed.

With Woods’ ruling, church attorney Joel Klevens said “the biggest, most important, most threatening” impediment to selling the property, possibly for commercial development, has been removed.

A second, similar lawsuit against the church is pending in Superior Court, however, as is a proposal to have the city designate the 72-year-old building as a historical landmark.

Under review by the city’s Cultural Heritage Board, the historical designation would not bar selling the land but would forestall demolition of the building for a certain period of time.

“While that is still looming on the horizon, we are hopeful that the City Council will determine it is not a monument,” Klevens said. “We don’t think it is.”

Klevens said he does not believe the second lawsuit, which claims a similar trust exists on the property, will “interfere with a sale.”

“The court’s ruling (Tuesday) should go a long way toward invalidating that suit as well. . . . There is no trust,” he said.

In 1986, the Church of the Open Door thought it had sold the Italian Renaissance-style building for $23 million to television preacher Gene Scott in order to finance a new 40-acre facility in Glendora. But after paying only about $6.5 million, Scott stopped sending checks and tried to void the deal, claiming Garcia’s lawsuit cast a cloud over the title.

The confusing legal morass ended in March when the title reverted to the Church of the Open Door.

“Now the church has to sell it again,” Klevens said. “They don’t have any particular desire to sell it for a particular purpose. It’s just their survival depends on getting the money.

“Today’s ruling was a major victory.”