In order to determine if federal employment discrimination statutes apply to the employee of a para-church organization, a court will look to the descriptions of the employment both sides tender into evidence.  On a Motion to Dismiss at the beginning of a case, this may be a very limited inquiry.  Typically, motions to dismiss look only to the Plaintiff’s allegations in the Complaint or Petition and to any documents attached.  On a Motion for Summary Judgment filed after discovery the range of admissible facts and exhibits may be quite broader.

In Lishu Yin v Columbia International University, Order and Opinion, (D. SC – Columbia, 2017), the Plaintiff attached an employment contract to the Complaint and made certain allegations about her employment role.  The Court overruled the Motion to Dismiss.  The Court determined that the description of the Plaintiff’s job in the employment contract did not establish that Plaintiff was a minister such that the case barred pursuant to the First Amendment’s Ministerial Exception.  The employment contract described the job as “associate professor” and “faculty of the ministry.”  The Plaintiff self-described her role as a full time resident faculty member in the “Masters of Teaching English as a Foreign Language” program.  The Court held that these descriptions were not sufficient to persuade that Plaintiff was a “minister” triggering the Ministerial Exception.

The employment handbook of the institution and the employment contract cannot alone trigger the Ministerial Exception if they do not describe the ministry the jobholder is to perform.  Further, the description should reflect the age or maturity level of the students, not simply be overly general boilerplate, and the handbook and contract should dovetail by referring to each other’s latest version, even if the version is not stated.

• Uncategorized