Prophet has taken my house
I am a widow and out of misery I attached myself to a religious ministry. The “man of God” prophesied that the problems I was experiencing were founded in the house which I inherited from my late husband. He prophesied during one congregation that unless I sell that house, I will not live longer than a year. Out of that belief, I consulted him after the congregation and he advised me to sell the house to him on the pretext that he was full of the Holy Spirit to withstand the demons occupying the house. I sold the house at a throw away price and am now renting a two room apartment while the prophet is enjoying life in my spacious mansion. I have stopped going to that church and want to sue the fake prophet so as to get my house back. A lawyer told me that it is impossible to get the house back as I signed a contract of sale and got paid. Please guide me.
ST, Dar
The lawyer misdirected you as the contract for sale of house you entered into with this so-called prophet is voidable in that it was induced by undue influence. Undue influence occurs where the relationship subsisting between the parties is such that one of the parties is in a position to dominate the will of the other and uses that position to obtain an unfair advantage over the other.
A person is deemed to be in a position to dominate the will of another where she or he holds a real or apparent authority over the other or where she or he stands in a fiduciary relation to the other. For the claim of inducement by undue influence to stand, one has to prove that indeed a party held a real or apparent authority over her or him and that through that inducement a strong person obtained unfair advantage. Fortunately, spiritual leaders are unambiguously known to have apparent authority over their followers.
In your case, the fake prophet apparently held authority over you as you believed in what he purported to foresee that you would die in a year unless you sell the house which was a source of your misfortunes. Yet he bought the house at a throw away price and for that matter he benefited from his fake prophecy. We advise you to look for a good lawyer to take the matter to Court as we are convinced that you have a good case against the ‘prophet’.