Lawsuits against supernatural beings
civil action brought in a court of law against a supernatural being such as God or the devil
Lawsuits against supernatural beings, such as God or the devil, have occurred in real life and in fiction. Issues debated in the actions include the problem of evil and harmful "acts of God".
Actual suits
Betty Penrose
In 1969, Arizonan lawyer Russel T. Tansie filed a suit against God on behalf of his secretary, Betty Penrose, seeking $100,000 in damages. Penrose blamed God for his "negligence" in allowing a lightning bolt to strike her house. The lawsuit was filed in a Californian court under the argument that God owned property in Sonoma County, California, due to the Limeliters singer Lou Gottlieb transferring the deed of his Morning Star Ranch to God about a week before. The deed was ruled invalid, due to God not being able to take possession of the property, and hence Penrose's lawsuit was also ruled invalid.
Gerald Mayo
United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff was a 1971 case filed before the United States district court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in which Gerald Mayo alleged that "Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff's downfall" and had therefore "deprived him of his constitutional rights". (Depriving someone of constitutional rights is prohibited under several sections of the United States Code.) Mayo filed in forma pauperis—that is, he asserted that he would not be able to afford the costs associated with his lawsuit and that they therefore should be waived.
“Lawsuits against supernatural beings” enters the record as civil action brought in a court of law against a supernatural being such as God or the devil. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lawsuits, against and supernatural can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Lawsuits against supernatural beings” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lawsuits, against and supernatural provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1056489. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1969 and 1971.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Lawsuits against supernatural beings”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Lawsuits against supernatural beings primary sources, Lawsuits against supernatural beings archive and Lawsuits research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lawsuits against supernatural beings”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Lawsuits against supernatural beings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.