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A federal appeals court on Friday put a feud between the federal and state court judges hearing cases involving a polygamous sect's property trust on hold.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver issued a temporary stay of two rulings made by U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson.

The first began contempt of court proceedings against 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg for ordering that an April 8 preliminary injunction issued by Benson should not be followed. The second was the injunction itself, in which Benson had given the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints control of its property trust for the first time in six years.

The state took over the trust amid allegations of mismanagement, but Benson recently declared the takeover unconstitutional because the state had effectively seized a church.

The appeals court has directed all parties to file briefs in the dispute by April 22, when it will then consider the issues at hand.

In requesting a stay of a contempt hearing that had been scheduled for Monday, attorney Brent M. Johnson said the "threats to Judge Lindberg's immunity are escalating."

"It is extremely unfortunate that this case has moved into a very public debate over the respective authorities of the state and federal judicial systems," wrote Johnson. "If the district court had issued a preliminary injunction that simply preserved the status quo, Judge Lindberg would not have issued her order."

Benson in court documents said Lindberg had "declared that she will resist and disobey this court's lawfully entered order." Johnson wrote Friday that Lindberg decided to issue the order putting Benson's injunction on hold because she recognized "significant and irreparable harm could occur even in the relatively short time that it took to seek a stay ... Judge Lindberg issued her order not to protect herself, but to protect the interests of those thousands of people affected by this case."

The trust, often referred to as the United Effort Plan, holds nearly all the land, buildings and homes in the sect's home base of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, and in Bountiful, British Columbia.

Lindberg in 2005 ordered a fiduciary to manage the trust after FLDS leader Warren Jeffs failed to respond to lawsuits over mismanagement. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and his staff also have accused Jeffs of misusing trust funds and suggest that money could have supported crimes committed by Jeffs.

Jeffs, 55, is in a Texas jail awaiting trial on sexual assault and bigamy charges. He and a church elder, William E. Jessop, are engaged in their own legal battle to determine who has control of the FLDS' Corporation of the President.