Lawsuits against supernatural beings

In 1969, Arizonan lawyer Russel T. Tansie filed a suit against God on behalf of his secretary, Betty Penrose, seeking $100,000 in damages.

[3] In 2005, a Romanian prisoner Pavel Mircea, serving 20 years after being convicted of murder, filed a lawsuit against the Romanian Orthodox Church, as God's representatives in Romania, for failing to keep him from the Devil, essentially stating that his baptism had been a binding contract.

[4] The suit was dismissed by the court in Timisoara in 2007, ruling that "God is not a person in the eyes of the law and does not have an address.

By suing God he "emphasized that attempts by the Legislature to prohibit the filing of any lawsuit would run afoul of the Nebraska Constitution's guarantee that the doors to the courthouse must be open to everyone.

"The scheduling hearing will give me a chance to lay out the facts that would justify the granting of the motion," Chambers was quoted as saying.

"[13] However, a judge finally did throw out the case, saying the Almighty was not properly served due to his unlisted home address.

Chandan Kumar Singh, a lawyer from Bihar, India, sued the Hindu god Rama for mistreating his wife, the goddess Sita.

[17][18] Consolatio peccatorum, seu Processus Luciferi contra Jesum Christum – Jacobus de Teramo's 14th-century writing of Lucifer's lawsuit against Christ In the Australian comedy film The Man Who Sued God (2001), a fisherman played by Billy Connolly successfully challenges the right of insurance companies to refuse payment for a destroyed boat on the common legal exemption clause of an act of God.

[20] In the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov (1880), one of the characters tells the story of a grand inquisitor in Spain who meets an incarnation of Jesus, interrogates him and exiles him.

It is set in a Ukrainian village during 1649 after a massacre of the Jewish inhabitants, possibly as part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising.

The verdict is innocent, after a stirring lone defence by a stranger who, in a twist, is revealed to be the Devil.