Sikh Temple case continued to April 19

Whether or not it's the outcome hoped for when the group filed the lawsuit in 2013 remains to be seen.

The lawsuit arose out of a multi-year dispute involving allegations of the takeover of the temple's managing 73-member board of directors.

According to the plaintiffs, a group in control of the board has gradually removed member rights and consolidated power upon themselves.

One of the results of the lawsuit was a judge-ordered membership meeting, held without a quorum for the first time, that asked members to vote for or against an extension of the terms of service of its board of directors from four years to eight years.

That extension was overwhelmingly voted down 896 to 1. But the board of directors, according to temple attorney Michael Barrette, was "not impressed" by the outcome, noting just 23 percent of the temple's 4,424 members showed up to cast a ballot.

This brings it back to Thursday's hearing.

Barrette is asking the judge to set a trial on the remaining three causes of action in the 2013 lawsuit so a final judgment can be issued. The temple could decide to appeal this final judgment, but that appeal can't go forward until the other three causes of action are resolved, Barrette said.

"We think 20 percent of the membership is not a majority," Barrette said. "We want to see if a Court of Appeal will uphold this election."

The plaintiffs, meanwhile, represented by attorney Donna Peter, will move forward with filing a motion asking the judge to set an election date for the board of directors on April 19, Peter said.

For now, there's little to do for either side but wait until the next hearing.

"There's a lot of procedure that has to be figured out here," Barrette said. "I've asked for the court to set a trial on the remaining courses of action. The other side said 'we want to file motions because we don't want to go to trial, we want to go to election.' "

CONTACT reporter Andrew Creasey at 749-4780 and on Twitter @AD_Creasey.