Attorneys for Rev. Jimmy Swaggart’s Family Worship Center Church are asking the 19th Judicial District Court for a new trial with Health Science Park, the local investor group that for more than 10 years has been trying to buy a 60-acre parcel on the ministry campus and redevelop it into a medical complex.
After an eight-day trial early this year, a jury awarded HSP the right to buy the property for the pre-Hurricane Katrina, agreed-upon price of $6.7 million. The jury also awarded the investors some $4.4 million in damages, including $1.6 million in interest, for the income they could have been earning on the property during the years they have been fighting Swaggart in court.
In court documents explaining why they’re entitled to a new trial, Swaggart’s attorneys say the jury’s damage award was out of line and that interest cannot be applied to damage awards in a breach-of-contract case. They also argue the jury’s verdict form did not determine what the purchase price for the property should be.
“It is clearly contrary to the law and evidence for the judgment to include a set purchase price the jury did not decide on,” court documents read.
HSP’s right to exercise its option on the property at a price agreed upon before Hurricane Katrina sent area land values skyrocketing is the issue at the heart of the long-running case. FWCC attorneys also raised several technical and procedural reasons they say entitles the ministry to a new trial.
HSP’s attorneys responded April 18 in a court filing of their own.
“What FWCC is really saying is that it does not like the jury’s verdict and the corresponding judgment because they’re not in FWCC’s favor,” HSP’s court documents say. “FWCC’s motion for new trial seeks to re-litigate the same legal issues that this court has already put to rest in numerous pre-trial hearings … A new trial is simply not a proper remedy for FWCC’s utter failure to convince the jury that its position had merit.”
The continued legal wrangling suggests the long-running dispute won’t be resolved any time soon. If the judge denies FWCC’s motion for a new trial, the ministry’s next option is to appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeal.
Read a recent Business Report cover story on the case between FWCC and HSP, as well as how Swaggart’s SonLife Broadcasting Network has breathed new life into his once dying ministry.
—Stephanie Riegel
