Vol. I · Tuesday, July 28, 2026 RSS  ·  Search  ·  About

News and primary-source research on the Watchtower organization

Property law

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D.N.J. No. 25-cv-01459Confirmed

UPDATE: Jehovah's Witnesses drop their appeal in a 1999 New Jersey tax-deal fight, leaving the federal dismissal to stand

Illustration: a sealed contract on a municipal ledger beneath scales whose pans are two courthouse doorways

A federal judge dismissed the congregation's bid to escape a 1999 payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal on its Turnersville assembly hall, ruling only that a federal court is the wrong forum — she decided nothing about whether the hall is tax-exempt. The congregation appealed, then dropped the appeal on 21 July 2026, the day its opening brief was due, leaving that dismissal to stand.

The Bundesgerichtshof did not award the more-than-1,000-document archive to anyone; it found the lower court used the wrong standard on good-faith acquisition and sent the case back.Confirmed

German high court revives Jehovah's Witnesses' claim to a Nazi-persecution archive, orders new hearing

Illustration: an archival document box of letters and photographs beside scales of justice

Germany's Federal Court of Justice quashed a Cologne ruling and remanded the dispute over the Kusserow family archive held in a Dresden military museum. Ownership remains undecided.