Slander Suit Against Two Ministers, Church Founder Is Dismissed

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Friday dismissed a multimillion-dollar libel and slander suit filed more than nine years ago against two ministers of the Pasadena-based Worldwide Church of God and the estate of the church’s late founder, Herbert W. Armstrong.

Superior Court Judge Richard A. Lavine granted a summary motion on behalf of Raymond McNair and Roderick Meredith, who had been named in an action filed in July, 1979, by McNair’s former wife, Leona. The couple were divorced in 1976 after 21 years of marriage.

Leona McNair had sued for $10.5 million in damages, charging that she had been libeled and slandered when her divorce from McNair was used as an example by Meredith in a pastoral letter and at a church convention in Tucson in January, 1979, to explain the church’s new policy regarding divorce.

‘Hateful’ Behavior

In discussing the church’s policy, Meredith, head of pastoral affairs of the 100,000-member church, told about 1,000 ministers and their wives that Leona McNair had deserted her husband, spat at him and was “as hateful as a person could be.”

Leona McNair contended that Meredith had libeled and slandered her with falsehoods. And she won a $1.26-million judgment in a jury trial before Pasadena Superior Court Judge Robert Olson in the summer of 1984.

About three years later, however, the state Court of Appeal overturned the verdict, holding that Leona McNair would have to show that Meredith made the challenged statements with knowledge that they were false and with a reckless disregard for the truth.

New Trial Ordered

The court ordered the case returned to Superior Court for a new trial.

“The church is relieved that this nine-year legal battle has finally been put to rest and my clients are happy that the court has finally vindicated the reputation of the church and its leaders by holding that Leona McNair had no evidence that any statements made by the ministry were in bad faith,” said attorney Alan Browne, who represented Raymond McNair, Meredith and the Armstrong estate, after Friday’s decision.

Attorney Antony Stuart, who represents Leona McNair, said his client plans to appeal.

“We are not going to abandon Leona McNair after nine years,” Stuart said. “We feel that (Lavine’s) ruling requires the impossible--for a person to prove what another person claims he believes.”