Yesterday a state appellate court in Brooklyn, New York upheld the governance of the Geeta Temple, in New York City, by its current trustees and religious leader, Swami Satyanandji. In a case entitled Temple-Ashram v. Satyanandji, the Second Department upheld a trial court decision that dismissed a lawsuit brought by four former devotees of the temple who claimed to be the “lawfully appointed trustees” of the Temple. The court found that:
. . . the Supreme Court correctly found that … the plaintiffs failed to establish their standing to prosecute this action pursuant to Religious Corporations Law §§ 180, 181, and, 182. While the individual plaintiffs asserted that they had been validly appointed as trustees at an October 2005 meeting held by Swami Jagdishwaranandji prior to his death, they presented no evidence demonstrating how such purported appointment complied with Geeta’s 1973 bylaws or with the provisions of article 9 of the Religious Corporations Law … . Further, any contention that Swami Jagdishwaranandji, in his capacity as spiritual leader, had the authority to appoint the individual plaintiffs as trustees of Geeta is not supported by the record. Further, no corporate records establishing such appointments were produced by the plaintiffs. Consequently, based on the evidence presented, there was no rational process by which it could be concluded that the individual plaintiffs constituted Geeta’s validly elected board of trustees. (Emphasis added)
The court’s decision could hardly have been clearer about the lack of merit to the plaintiffs’ case. The Plaintiffs had a full and fair opportunity to present all of their evidence over the course of a full week of trial before Justice Roger N. Rosengarten (now retired) of the Supreme Court for Queens County. Justice Rosengarten dismissed their case after the plaintiffs had finished presenting their evidence, and the appellate court found that he had acted correctly in so doing, because none of the plaintiffs’ proofs provided any rational basis for concluding that they were the temple’s trustees.
It looks like the seven-year long legal proceedings contesting the governance of the Geeta Temple may at long last be coming to an end.
Swami Satyanandji and the other successful defendants in the case were represented at trial and on appeal by firm partner Jonathan Robert Nelson.