In 1957 the Baháʼí world came upon a crisis when Shoghi Effendi died without having appointed a successor. The appointed Hands of the Cause organized a way to fill the central leadership until a decision could be made by the Universal House of Justice, which was elected in 1963 and ruled that under the conditions that prevailed, no second Guardian could have been appointed. Prior to the election of the Universal House of Justice, in 1960 one of the Hands, Mason Remey, announced that he was the Guardian and expected the allegiance of the world's Baháʼís. Remey was a prominent member of the American Baháʼí community, having been a contemporary of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and appointed president of the International Baháʼí Council. His claim was rejected by the Hands of the Cause, and nearly all Baháʼís regarded him as a Covenant-breaker. Remey's division failed to attract sizable following. In 1964 there was a lawsuit and the NSA and won trademark rights. This group splintered and dwindled below 100 members by 2010, with no communal religious life.
