Arizona court rules against eviction in polygamist community

PHOENIX An Arizona appellate court today ruled that a leader of a leader of a polygamist sect in Colorado City couldn't evict a couple that included a man whom the leader had ousted from the sect.

The state Court of Appeals upheld a Mohave County trial judge's ruling dismissing an eviction action filed against Milton and Lenore Holm. That eviction had been filed by a trust controlled by leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Holms live in a house on trust land in Colorado City but they deny they have a landlord-tenant relationship.

The Court of Appeals says the trial judge was correct to dismiss the trust's eviction action because it couldn't resolve the underlying legal issues of whether the Holms have a right to remain on the land.