Opinion ID: 1779062
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Bear Valley Church of Christ v. DeBose

Text: ś 61. The Malicki court cited with approval Bear Valley Church of Christ v. DeBose, 928 P.2d 1315, 1323 (Colo.1996), which held that the First Amendment was not a bar to tort claims made by a child against a pastor and church for a pattern of inappropriate touching in counseling sessions. The Colorado Supreme Court, responding to the argument that allowing a negligent hiring claim would necessarily entangle the court in ecclesiastical matters, held: While claims for illegal hiring or discharge of a minister inevitably involve religious doctrine, that is not the case for a claim of negligent hiring of a minister. The claim of negligent hiring is brought after the employee has harmed a third party through his or her office of employment. An employer is found liable for negligent hiring if, at the time of hiring, the employer had reason to believe that hiring this person would create an undue risk of harm to others. Hence, the court does not inquire into the employer's broad reasons for choosing this particular employee for the position, but instead looks to whether the specific danger which ultimately manifested itself could have reasonably been foreseen at the time of hiring. Id. at 1323 (citations omitted) (quoting Van Osdol v. Vogt, 908 P.2d 1122, 1132 n. 17)(Colo.1996)(emphasis added). ś 62. Applying the teachings of Employment Division and Lukumi, as did the Florida Supreme Court, we are persuaded that the tort laws of Mississippi are valid, neutral laws which regulate conduct the State is free to regulate, and such laws must be upheld against all institutions, including the Diocese. We thus find no merit to the assertion that the Free Exercise Clause deprives our civil courts of jurisdiction over the causes of action alleged in the Morrisons' complaint against the Diocese. 3. The Doctrine of Church Autonomy ś 63. The third theory presented to us by the Diocese is the Doctrine of Church Autonomy, sometimes referred to as the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine. ś 64. In 1872, the United States Supreme Court decided Watson v. Jones, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 679, 20 L.Ed. 666 (1872), which involved a bitter property dispute between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions within the Presbyterian Church at the conclusion of the Civil War. The matter was submitted to, and decided by, the highest Presbyterian church authorities, whose decision was reversed by the Kentucky Court of Appeals. The Kentucky court applied an English precedent known as Lord Eldon's Rule, which provided that church disputes should be submitted to civil courts, and decided in favor of the faction which most closely followed traditional doctrine. Watson, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) at 727. ś 65. In rejecting Lord Eldon's Rule and reversing the Kentucky court, the Watson Court, found civil courts to be incompetent judges of matters of faith, discipline, and doctrine. Thus, held Watson, civil courts must [15] decline jurisdiction over such matters. Id. at 732. The Watson Court went further to hold: Each [church] has a body of constitutional and ecclesiastical law of its own, to be found in their written organic laws, their books of discipline, in their collections of precedents, in their usage and customs, which as to each constitutes a system of ecclesiastical law and religious faith that tasks the ablest minds to become familiar with. It is not to be supposed that the judges of the civil courts can be as competent in the ecclesiastical law and religious faith of all these bodies as the ablest men in each are in reference to their own. Id. at 729. ś 66. In addition to finding church authority better able to decide such disputes within the church, the Watson Court eschewed the prospect of civil courts examining with minuteness and care not only the subject of doctrinal theology, but also the usages and customs, the written laws, and fundamental organization of every religious denomination. Id. at 733. ś 67. The rule announced in Watson is not without precedent in Mississippi. In Sustar v. Williams, 263 So.2d 537 (Miss. 1972), this Court followed the Watson rule, holding that Mississippi courts accept the highest ecclesiastical authority in each church as being the faith and practice of that church. Id. at 540. See also Mt. Helm Baptist Church v. Jones 79 Miss. 488, 30 So. 714, 716 (1901) (This court exercises no ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It accepts what the highest ecclesiastical authority in each church promulgates as the faith and practice of that church.). ś 68. Watson is cited by the Diocese as the origin of, and authority for, the Doctrine of Church Autonomy. [16] This Doctrine, later found to be a constitutional imperative in Kedroff, is strongly advanced by the Diocese, whose arguments suggest bright-line abstention by civil courts in virtually all matters and disputes arising within the church. The Diocese cites over one hundred cases in its brief, providing numerous examples of governmental and judicial abstention in cases involving various kinds of disputes within religious organizations. However, we do not read any of these cases to say, and we are not so easily persuaded, that the Doctrine of Church Autonomy suggests blanket protection of the Church from all accountability in our civil courts. As with everything judicial, there are exceptions, tests, and limits. ś 69. We read Watson to hold only that civil courts may not take jurisdiction over a religious organization's internal, ecclesiastical matters. We do not read it to expand the scope of what are a religious organization's internal, ecclesiastical matters. Rather, we are persuaded by the following language from Watson: When a civil right depends upon an ecclesiastical matter, it is the civil court and not the ecclesiastical which is to decide. But the civil tribunal tries the civil right, and no more, taking the ecclesiastical decisions out of which the civil right arises as it finds them. Watson, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) at 731 ( citing with approval Harmon v. Dreher, 2 Speer's Equity, 87.)