United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 23-2833 LESTER SUMRALL and LESTER SUMRALL FAMILY TRUST, Defendants/Counterclaim Plaintiffs/Third- Party Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v. LESEA, INC., et al., Plaintiffs/Counterclaim Defendants/Third- Party Defendants-Appellees. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division. No. 3:18-cv-00914 — Philip P. Simon, Judge. ____________________

ARGUED MAY 13, 2024 — DECIDED JUNE 12, 2024 ____________________

Before SCUDDER, ST. EVE, and PRYOR, Circuit Judges. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge. A family member may harbor a grudge for decades, not acting on a perceived injustice for many long years. He may not, however, turn to the courts for aid after such a long delay. Take this case: decades after a pa- triarch’s death, his son and grandson claim they should have inherited part of his estate. They are too late. We affirm. 2 No. 23-2833

I. Background Dr. Lester Frank Sumrall founded a church that became an empire. At its peak the Lester Sumrall Evangelical Association (now LeSEA, Inc., or “LeSEA”) spread its message from South Bend, Indiana around the world through television, its minis- try feeding the poor, and Dr. Sumrall’s own travels, writings, and media productions. Those writings and productions were prolific: Dr. Sumrall registered 43 copyrights in his own name for books and films, and many other works went unregistered or were registered to LeSEA itself. Dr. Sumrall involved his family in LeSEA’s business and ministry. He had three sons: Frank, Peter, and Stephen. Each worked in the ministry. When the three had children of their own, those grandchildren likewise joined the family business. The eldest grandchild is Lester Sumrall, one of the plaintiffs here. Lester and his namesake, Dr. Sumrall, were close. As a boy, Lester would travel with his grandfather. Then, when Lester was eighteen, he went to work for Dr. Sumrall (as head of LeSEA), serving as both associate pastor and assistant. The travel continued, but at that point the two men would travel to a church, preach, and solicit donations. Someone—usually another LeSEA employee—would take photos. Then they would return home, using the donations and photos to fur- ther LeSEA’s ministry. One 1994 trip saw Lester and Dr. Sumrall travel deep into China, with the goal of supporting oppressed Chinese Chris- tians. The pair was accompanied only by two interpreters, so this time Lester took the photos. Some show Dr. Sumrall speaking to a large local crowd. In one with special signifi- cance here, the “Traveler Photo,” Lester captured Dr. Sumrall No. 23-2833 3 posing with an elderly Chinese man. On the way home, Lester had the photos developed in Hong Kong. Two years later Dr. Sumrall passed away. That had two consequences relevant here. First, a LeSEA employee named Charles Strantz asked Lester if he had any photos suitable for use in a memorial article for Dr. Sumrall. Lester gave Strantz some of the photos from the China trip. Today LeSEA has some of the negatives. Lester has others. Neither has the Trav- eler Photo’s negative. Second, Lester’s uncles Peter and Stephen took over the ministry. (His father Frank briefly stayed on as an associate pastor.) The uncles told Frank and others that Dr. Sumrall had left everything to the ministry, for Dr. Sumrall habitually kept assets in LeSEA—donating a home, for example, to the min- istry as a parsonage. Fast-forward eight years. In late 2004 or early 2005, rumor