Category: Uncategorized

EVAPORATION OF THE WIDOW’S MITE

Church pastors often suffer from an imposed “vow of poverty.” Congregations that are not faithful donors often remain chronic. Founding pastors often remain for their entire career at the same church never subjecting the church to the reality of the marketplace. Pastors that make the mistake of residing in a “parsonage” lose the home equity most middle-class Americans treat as a civil right. Founding pastors often fail to install retirement plans until late in their career with no way to “catch up” without offending the good folks at the federal and state taxing authorities. However, when a pastor or a conscience driven church leadership tries to address the problem with inadequate resources and inadequate professional advice one or the other, or both, enter into arrangements that are questionable. The pastor, and usually the pastor’s widow, end up without a solution, or worse, with a ruined legacy.

In Jenkins v Refuge Temple Church of God, Slip Op. (SC App. 2018), the founding pastor appointed board members, however, the bylaws required congregational election. The pastor asked the board to enter into an employment agreement with him that contained a survivorship clause whereby his widow would receive income for life. The employment agreement with the survivorship clause was not voted upon by the congregation nor even revealed to the congregation. After the pastor died, the widow was paid by the congregation for six years. Financial necessities convinced the successor pastor and church leadership to phase out the payments. They believed the widow’s payments fulfilled their obligation as set forth in church tradition for such situations and did not learn of the written contract until the litigation for breach of the contract was brought by the widow. The trial court entered judgment for the widow on a breach of contract theory, apply neutral principles of law, but the Court of Appeals reversed. The failure of the board to be properly elected was fatal to the enforceability of the contract. That the church had made monthly payments to the widow did not estop the church under the laches doctrine because the church did not know about the contract.

Other financial arrangements might have worked far better than a “secret” contract adopted by a board of dubious legal authority. A Certified Public Accountant, a financial planner, or even an insurance specialist could have suggested many options and revealed their relevant costs. The pastor and the church may have had a moral obligation to the widow. Whether either fulfilled that obligation is a moral question not within the scope of this report. During the pastor’s ministry, a retirement plan should have been in place other than the employment contract survivorship clause. Both the pastor and the church leadership should have enacted it. A life insurance employment benefit, for example, would have been the easiest solution.

DENOMINATIONAL CHURCH ARBITRATION

There are few reported examples of denominational church arbitration that allow study of the process or its purposes. Also, most denominational arbitration systems are still infantile in their development and operation. A few are beginning to mimic the highly developed American Arbitration Association or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA,” formerly “NASD” and formerly “NYSE”) arbitral forums. Denominational church arbitration is reported so rarely, and probably conducted so rarely, that evaluation of process or results is problematic.

In Garcia v Church of Scientology, Order, (MD FL, Tampa Div., 2018) the United States District Court dismissed the case challenging an arbitral award against the Plaintiffs. The Plaintiffs submitted an arbitration claim to retrieve hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations in two programs of the church the plaintiffs claimed were fraudulently misrepresented. The Plaintiffs challenged the arbitral award on United States Arbitration Act grounds including “evident partiality” and misconduct of arbitrators. The plaintiffs claimed witnesses and documentary exhibits were not heard or reviewed by the arbitrators, the arbitral forum held ex parte meetings with the arbitrators, and the arbitral forum edited or redacted exhibits submitted to the arbitrators. They also claimed their counsel was not allowed to attend, however, the Court determined the record reflected Counsel would have been allowed to attend but would not have been allowed to participate. Considering the challenge in light of the limited review possible under the United States Arbitration Act and the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine, the Court found no sustainable grounds for the challenge. The Court held the Plaintiffs agreed to arbitration, agreed to proceed in arbitration and were bound by church arbitral rules and procedures which included much about which they complained.

Arbitrators as a herd try to do the right thing usually regardless of the procedural niceties imposed by the arbitral forum. However, arbitrators are usually selected because they are in some way allied with the arbitral forum or its sponsors. That is true in commercial arbitration so it should not be a surprise that denominational church arbitrators would be closely aligned with the church denomination. That does not mean the arbitration cannot be fair because sympathy will only go so far. In most arbitrations, it does not play a determinative role because all adverse litigating parties are also aligned with the arbitral forum in some way. If the damages claim presented by the claimant, in commercial or church arbitration, requires a negative interpretation of facts otherwise innocent, such as fund-raising marketing representations as in the case reported herein, the case will be weak at best. Hard facts showing fraud designed and directed especially at a vulnerable plaintiff would be required. Also, if counsel is allowed to attend but not participate, or not allowed to attend, then the arbitration is probably not worth the effort or cost. Most claimants lack sufficient training in advocacy in a litigation setting to represent themselves much less the emotional objectivity needed to put forward successful arguments. Pro Se plaintiffs and claimants get lost in the weeds, do not know when to throw back the little ones, and do not know the decisional paradigm or standards of the arbitral forum well enough to know which parts of their case are important.

CHURCH SUBPOENAS

Just because a church or church organization is not a named party in a lawsuit does not mean that a church or church organization that has some role in the dispute, even a benign and neutral role, will not be served with a subpoena for documents or testimony. The extent to which the subpoena for documents will be allowed to intrude into internal church governance will in most instances be litigated. In these instances, the third party church or church organization like any other third party has certain legal protections from undue expense and intrusion. Unlike most third parties, however, church and church organizations are also protected by the First Amendment.

In Whole Woman’s Health v Smith, Slip Op. (5th Cir. 2018), the Texas Catholic Conference’s director voluntarily agreed to testify on behalf of the State of Texas in the dispute regarding whether Texas could impose on abortion clinics certain duties regarding disposal of fetal remains. The Texas Catholic Conference advocated that disposal of remains should be performed “with respect” and arranged free of charge common burial in Catholic cemeteries. The Texas Catholic Conference received a subpoena that reached internal communications ostensibly for use in cross examination of the conference’s director. Although the Texas Catholic Conference voluntarily produced four thousand pages of records arising from its communications with state officers, other catholic conferences, and Catholic cemeteries, it objected to producing its internal deliberations. The objection was heard by the court in June 2018 and the trial was set for July 2018. Indeed, the final order of the trial court was issued on Sunday, Father’s Day, and allowed 24 hours for an appeal or production of the documents. The trial court permitted a further 72 hour stay of its order to allow an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. However, the 5th Circuit stayed the case.

It is rare that federal judges are acrimonious in the slightest to anyone much less each other but the opinion nudged that line. The majority criticized the trial court for its unreasonably short deadlines. The dissent criticized the majority and the concurring opinions for questioning the motives of the trial judge. The 5th Circuit majority quashed the subpoena as to internal deliberations of the Texas Catholic Conference on First Amendment grounds. Other types of political action groups have received similar protection but church organizations have never needed such protection because courts avoided trying to glean non-religious from religious internal discussions on public policy issues due to Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine implications. The trial court reviewed the disputed documents in camera and held they were not “religious.” The 5th Circuit majority questioned whether the trial court was competent to make that determination because determining what was “religious” required church specific ecclesiastical training. The tree from which these acorns fell was the Texas Catholic Conference’s long standing public policy stance on abortion based on moral and religious grounds.

The decision highlights the risk of involvement in public policy issues. Also, church documents regarding internal policy or religious deliberations should not be submitted for in camera review when the church is not a party to the lawsuit but rather an immediate appeal taken.

PROCEDURAL LAW BARRIERS TO CHURCH LAWSUITS

There are no statistics available, and if they were asserted their reliability would be suspect, regarding whether lawsuits involving churches are terminated on procedural grounds as often, more often, or less often than lawsuits involving other private or commercial entities. For one thing, the determination as to the precise role each argument played in a disposition is sometimes determined subjectively by the reviewer of the opinion. That disclaimer aside, many lawsuits involving churches do not proceed to a decision on the merits or even to a point sufficiently definitive to be reported here. Also, many state trial courts are not fully integrated into the world wide web such that interlocutory or even final trial court decisions are rarely sufficiently visible to be reported here. That does not mean they are not important cases or decisions. If we cannot see them, however, we cannot report them. However, sometimes the trial court’s procedural rulings are appealed and become visible.

In Eaddy v Capers, Slip Op. (unpublished) (S. Car., App., 2018), the court of appeals affirmed a trial court’s summary judgment that the excommunication of the Plaintiff was outside the jurisdiction of the South Carolinian courts. The trial court held it did not have jurisdiction over church disciplinary matters under the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine. The appellate court noted that Plaintiff’s new arguments on appeal had not been submitted to the trial court and ruled upon, or otherwise preserved for appellate review. The new arguments were that (1) the church leadership had not been properly elected so they did not have authority to conduct church disciplinary proceedings and (2) that the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine as interpreted by South Carolina did not apply to a congregational church like the defendant. But, because the arguments were not preserved for review, they could not be considered.

Preservation of arguments for appellate review is fundamental but trial counsel sometimes believe they have when they have not. That is a cautionary thought for church lawyers, too. Before trial level proceedings close, it may be necessary to review motions and court rulings on them issued many months or even years previously rather than rely on sometimes fallible memory. Making sure court rulings from the bench have been suitably memorialized in writing in the court record can also be a challenge if some of the proceedings were oral argument.