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Chuck Smith's Daughter Sues Calvary Chapel, Claims Elder Abuse, Wrongful Takeover

A lawsuit has been filed against Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in southern California and its current senior pastor, Brian Brodersen, accusing Brodersen and the elder board of abusing founder Chuck Smith during the time before and shortly after his death in October 2013. The suit also includes a dispute over intellectual property rights and says CCCM failed to pay Smith’s wife, Kay, the proceeds from a $1 million life insurance policy and a $7,500 annuity she had received before his death.

Janette Manderson, Smith’s daughter, filed the suit against CCCM and her brother-in-law Brodersen on behalf of Kay Smith, who is 87 and allegedly suffers from dementia. Manderson insists her father’s death was “hastened” by the negligent care provided by a nurse overseen by Brodersen. Brodersen and the CCCM board are also accused of wrongfully seizing Smith’s computers, hard drives, files and records in the days after his passing, according to the Orange County Register. ChristianityToday.com says the suit claims Brodersen and other board members “planned and perpetrated a scheme to seize control over” Smith’s sermons and other property in 2009 in order to use donations and sales revenues to “maintain [CCCM’s] current level of operations.”

Not everyone in the family agrees with this lawsuit, however. Chuck Smith, Jr., responded in strong opposition to it shortly after it was filed. In a letter that was distributed at CCCM this past weekend, Smith, Jr. called the suit “groundless, deplorable and dishonoring” and a “sad stain on the representation of Christianity.”

“The only motivation I can see for the suit is malice and greed. Any pretense to honor my father’s name or provide adequate care and support for my mother is nonsense,” Smith, Jr. wrote.

As reported by Christian Post in regard to the financial claims against CCCM, Smith, Jr. said that his parents had been paid through a program known as Rabbi’s Trust, and the church was not responsible for his father’s salary. He said that if there was a lapse in what his mother was now receiving, it was due to “either negligence or ineptitude in part of the executor of the trust.”

“If I had heard that my mom was not receiving adequate compensation or care, I would have inquired into it, and if there was any problem there, I would have taken her into my home,” Smith, Jr. added. “This is not going to fly when it gets to the court.”

Punitive and compensatory damages are being sought, but no amounts have been specified yet.
 
Chuck Smith, Sr., founded Calvary Chapel in 1965, which became the premier outpost for the Jesus People revival in Southern California, a movement that hit the national media in 1971. By the early 21st-century there were more than 700 Calvary Chapels in the United States, with an estimated following of nearly 300,000. Smith, Sr., had battled with cancer since 2011 and died two years later at the age of 86.