Opinion ID: 1135155
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Separation of Counseling and Sexual Misconduct Activities

Text: The jury found DeHart liable for breach of fiduciary duty and outrageous conduct. The court of appeals decided that the damages caused by DeHart's counseling of Bohrer were so intertwined with the charge of sexual misconduct as to render them inseparable. Bohrer, No. 95CA1692, slip op. at 4. We read the record and the applicable law otherwise. Had no sexual contact taken place, Bohrer could have had a viable claim against DeHart for breach of fiduciary duty based solely on counseling activities for which the coverage of this policy is answerable. See Moses v. Diocese of Colorado, 863 P.2d 310, 323 (Colo.1993) (stating that bishop assumed role of counselor to parishioner and had a duty to act with the utmost good faith for her benefit, but failed to assist counselee and, instead, used her trust in him to her detriment).
Although DeHart disputed at trial that he was Bohrer's counselor, the record demonstrates that he undertook a counseling role. DeHart's wife recognized that she was unprepared to deal with Bohrer's emotional problems and referred Bohrer to her husband for counseling in his capacity as youth minister. Upon learning that Bohrer's father had verbally and physically abused her for a number of years and that Bohrer had contemplated suicide, DeHart advised her to place her trust in him and acted to discourage her from seeking counsel by others. In meetings at his office, over the telephone, and on youth field trips, DeHart proceeded to advise Bohrer about her emotional problems and family relationships. As De-Hart's personal relationship with his wife deteriorated, he began discussing his personal problems with Bohrer while she was seeking help and depending on his counsel. Late in 1984, DeHart told Bohrer that he loved her. She asked him whether he meant this in a fatherly sense. DeHart explained that he loved her in a romantic sense. Instead of recognizing that his personal feelings in this regard might impair the best interests of his counselee, ceasing the counseling relationship, and referring her to another counselor, DeHart continued to advise Bohrer in violation of his duty of trust. We have previously articulated that the responsible party in the trust relationship has a duty to recommend counseling by another if that is in the troubled person's best interest. See Moses, 863 P.2d at 323. In Moses, we said: Acting as the representative for the Diocese, Bishop Frey failed to assist Tenantry in understanding that she was not the only person responsible for her sexual relationship with Father Robinson. He did not recommend counseling for Tenantry but did recommend counseling for Father Robinson and ordered Father Robinson to make progress reports on the counseling. Bishop Frey's only action in regard to Tenantry was to bind her to secrecy. Thus, Bishop Frey assumed control of a situation that demanded he consider Tenantry's interests and then used Tenantry's trust to her detriment. Id. Referral to another counselor is particularly necessary when the first counselor has become emotionally involved with the counselee and is unable to provide the appropriate counseling. Doctor Frederick M. Miller, a psychiatrist, testified in the jury trial that the beneficial counseling Bohrer needed at age twelve had been postponed for six years as a direct result of DeHart's failure to afford her proper counseling. His opinion was that DeHart's counseling activities aggravated her already poor relationship with her parents, made her susceptible to the sexual conduct DeHart pursued, impaired her ability to trust others, and contributed to her emotional and physical distress. [4] DeHart should have recognized the boundaries of the counseling relationship, advised her to seek another counselor, and ceased counseling her. See St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Love, 459 N.W.2d 698, 700, 702 (Minn.1990)(recognizing insurance coverage for counselor's inappropriate response to his counselee's best interest). Instead, DeHart breached the boundaries of this trust relationship by imposing on her his own feelings of inadequacy and isolation, his marital difficulties, and fulfillment of his emotional needs. Failure to take appropriate action in his counselee's best interest is a risk for which Church Mutual insured De-Hart under the policy's counseling coverage.
DeHart's sexual misconduct occurred after a prolonged period of counseling Bohrer. In February of 1985, DeHart began touching her breasts and genitals. In June of 1985, DeHart first had sexual intercourse with her. Bohrer was fourteen years of age. Bohrer testified that sexual intercourse occurred approximately three times a week thereafter, until she was eighteen and had commenced college. When the covered conduct causes injury resulting in damages, and the excluded conduct has not occurred in close temporal and spatial relationship to the covered conduct, coverage is not defeated by the exclusion. See Horace Mann Ins. Co. v. Barbara B., 4 Cal.4th 1076, 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 210, 846 P.2d 792, 797 (1993) (concluding that damages from covered and excluded causes were not in such close temporal and spatial proximity ... as to compel the conclusion that they are inseparable, therefore insurer's duty to defend was implicated) (emphasis in original). Under the facts of the case, the counseling and the sexual misconduct activities became so intertwined as to render them inseparable from the time sexual fondling commenced in February of 1985 to the time Bohrer began college. Thus, we conclude that DeHart was not insured for the risk of his activities during this period, but he was insured for the risks incurred during the counseling period. In reaching this conclusion, we reject the court of appeals total preclusion of coverage which it reached in reliance on Houg v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., 509 N.W.2d 590 (Minn.App.1993). There, the counselee was an adult woman seeking marital counseling who premised her case on an accusation that a member of the clergy set out on a course of conduct designed to entice and seduce her into sexual relations. Houg, 509 N.W.2d at 591. The counselee in Houg apparently made no showing that harmful counseling had taken place before the conduct of a sexual nature which triggered the insurance policy's exclusion. Id. DeHart's errors and omissions during the extended period of counseling are separable from the excluded conduct, and damages ascribable to the counseling activities are within the insurance policy's coverage.