Are there any court cases involving people selling or giving away property because they thought the Christian Rapture was coming, then trying to get the property back after the date it was supposed happen came and went?
If so, what was the result?
There might be some cases related to cults like Jehovah’s Witness. More likely, it involves the other family suing the church and claiming the seller was incompetent and duped.
(Recall a situation a friend described with JW decades ago - his elderly mother wanted to sell the house and give the money to the church, since the end of days was coming soon and giving the money to th local elders would put her on the fast track to heaven. However, when she asked her kids to testify their elderly father was incompetent, so she could have power of attorney on the house, they told her in no uncertain terms to forget it. So, never happened. Neither has the end of days…)
It was a massive part of 19th century American culture, a big part of modern American religion and culture can be traced to that…
But I’ve never heard of any court cases like that in the OP
I don’t know of any such cases. I doubt someone would be successful and getting their stuff back, unless the recipient was in on the scam somehow. Maybe a case against the perpetrators, but it would be tough. As always, depends on the precise facts.
True - a sale is a sale, and from what I’ve read, contract law is pretty solidly established. If A sells to B, who has no relationship with the church or whatever, that’s a valid sale. A might be able to go after the church C, but I’m trying to imagine the grounds. If the person(s) in the church who would benefit - i.e. requested the donation as “proof of devotion” or such - had put undue influence, that might be a case…might. But if you happened to see a post online (original post not directed personally to you) about the end being nigh, and took it upon yourself to sell all, then you are the sole architect of your circumstances.
The weird thing being - if the world ends tomorrow, what’s the point? Unless… you have something in mind you can accomplish in one night that takes a lot of money.
agree. I was thinking of some kind of fraud angle. “The world is ending, I’ll take your car for $25.” If the buyer knows it’s all BS, maybe there’s a case there.