In In re: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Tithing Litigation, (10th Cir., Aug. 31, 2026), the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a class action lawsuit claiming misrepresentations regarding the use of funds donated to the LDS Church was filed after the statute of limitations had run. Church investment of some donated funds ran counter to the Church’s public statements that contributions were promptly used for charitable purposes, and counter to its representations that it was not using tithes to pay for developing a mall in order to revitalize an area near the Church’s Temple Square.
If plaintiffs should have learned of the Church’s misrepresentations before October 2020, their October 2023 lawsuit would be untimely. At issue is whether a whistleblower’s report that was covered in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, Fox News and CNN would have caused a reasonable person to investigate. The court said in part:
… [W]e emphasize that it is incorrect to say, as Plaintiffs do, that our holding means that “ordinary donors to a charity are legally obliged to read the Wall Street Journal or Washington Post to ensure that their donations are being honestly and legally used.”… We merely affirm the well-recognized principle that a plaintiff can be charged with knowledge of events that are so widely reported that a plaintiff exercising reasonable diligence should have learned of them.