Franco v. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

• Decision Date: 09 March 2001
• Docket Number: No. 981873.,981873.
• Parties: Lynette Earl FRANCO, Ralph Earl, and Janice Earl, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, Dennis Casaday, David Christensen, Dennis Strong, Marian Strong, Paul Browning, Craig Berthold, and Bountiful Health Center, Defendants and Appellees.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

21 P.3d 198

2001 UT 25

Lynette Earl FRANCO, Ralph Earl, and Janice Earl, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, Dennis Casaday, David Christensen, Dennis Strong, Marian Strong, Paul Browning, Craig Berthold, and Bountiful Health Center, Defendants and Appellees.

No. 981873.

Supreme Court of Utah.

March 9, 2001.

Edward R. Montgomery, Salt Lake City, for appellants.

Paul H. Matthews, Randy T. Austin, Alexander Dushku, Amy S. Thomas, Salt Lake City, for appellees.

RUSSON, Associate Chief Justice:

¶ 1 Plaintiffs Lynette Earl Franco ("Franco") and her parents Ralph and Janice Earl appeal the district court's dismissal of their tort claims against defendants The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "LDS Church"), Dennis Casaday, an LDS Church ward¹ bishop,² and David Christensen, an LDS Church stake³ president⁴ (collectively, "the LDS Church Defendants"). Franco sued the LDS Church Defendants for injuries she allegedly suffered as a result of advice she received during ecclesiastical counseling. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 Because this is an appeal from a motion to dismiss under rule 12(b)(6) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure,⁵ "we review only the facts alleged in the complaint." Educators Mut. Assn v. Allied Property & Cas. Ins. Co., 890 P.2d 1029, 1029 (Utah 1995). "In so doing, we `accept the factual allegations in the complaint as true and consider all reasonable inferences to be drawn from those facts in a light most favorable to the plaintiff.'" Id. at 1029-30 (quoting Prows v. State, 822 P.2d 764, 766 (Utah 1991)); see also Lowe v. Sorenson Research Co., 779 P.2d 668, 669 (Utah 1989)

.

¶ 3 Applying this standard, the complaint alleged the following operative facts: Beginning in July 1986, seven-year-old Lynette Earl Franco was sexually abused by fourteen-year-old Jason Strong ("Strong"). At the time the abuse occurred, both Franco and Strong were members of the same local ward of the LDS Church. The sexual abuse perpetrated against Franco was so extreme that she repressed the memory of the abuse until 1992, when she was fourteen years old. Upon recalling these incidents, Franco and her parents sought ecclesiastical counseling from the bishop of their local LDS Church ward, Dennis Casaday ("Casaday"), and from their LDS Church stake president, David Christensen ("Christensen"). During these ecclesiastical counseling sessions, Casaday and Christensen advised Franco to "forgive, forget, and seek Atonement." Moreover, at some point in the process of the ecclesiastical counseling, Franco determined that she needed additional help and therefore asked Casaday and Christensen to refer her to a licensed mental health professional. In accordance with this request, Casaday and Christensen referred Franco and her parents to Dr. Paul Browning ("Browning"), allegedly stating that Browning was "well qualified to help them." Browning was employed by the. Bountiful Mental Health Center, where he worked under Craig Berthold ("Berthold"), a licensed clinical social worker. On his business card, Browning held himself out as practicing "Individual, Marital, and Family Counseling," under the heading of "General Psychiatry." However, Browning was not a licensed mental health professional in the state of Utah. Upon receiving the referral from Casaday and Christensen, Browning counseled with Franco and her parents at the Bountiful Mental Health Center, advising Franco to forgive Strong and forget the incidents of sexual abuse rather than to inform the police. Finding Browning's advice unsatisfactory, Franco and her parents sought advice from another secular counselor, who then reported the incidents of sexual abuse to the police. After the incidents of sexual abuse were reported to the police, Franco alleged that she was "ostracized and denigrated" by the members of her local LDS Church ward, with the acquiescence of Casaday and Christensen, and therefore withdrew from the LDS Church.

¶ 4 Based on the above-described allegations, Franco asserted six claims against the LDS Church Defendants,⁶ all in tort: (1) clerical malpractice; (2) gross negligence; (3) negligent infliction of emotional distress; (4) breach of fiduciary duty; (5) intentional infliction of emotional distress; and (6) fraud. On April 18, 1997, Franco voluntarily dismissed her case, and she refiled it on April 4, 1998, asserting the same claims.

¶ 5 The LDS Church Defendants did not file an answer to Franco's complaint but moved to dismiss under rule 12(b)(6) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. In their motion, the LDS Church Defendants argued that as a matter of law, Franco could not recover under any of her theories. Specifically, the LDS Church Defendants contended that a determination of Franco's claims would necessarily implicate an excessive governmental entanglement with religion because resolution of the claims would require the courts to impose a secular duty of care on pastoral counselors and therefore the claims were barred by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The LDS Church Defendants further contended that even if Franco's claims were not barred by the First Amendment, her fraud and emotional distress claims failed as a matter of Utah law.

¶ 6 In response, Franco argued that her tort claims did not require an inquiry into the LDS Church's religious doctrines, practices, or beliefs and therefore the First Amendment was inapplicable. Moreover, Franco argued that she had sufficiently stated claims for fraud and emotional distress under Utah law.

¶ 7 On October 13, 1998, the trial court issued a memorandum decision⁷ dismissing Franco's tort claims against the LDS Church Defendants. The trial court held that each of Franco's tort claims was based on allegations that the LDS Church Defendants (1) counseled with Franco in an ecclesiastical setting and (2) recommended Browning as someone whom Franco might consult for further counseling and that, by doing so, the LDS Church Defendants departed from accepted practices in the services rendered. In light of these allegations, the trial court concluded that Franco's claims were essentially asking the court to impose a secular duty of care on pastoral counselors in the performance of their ecclesiastical counseling duties, which the trial court concluded was prohibited by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In addition, the trial court held that there were no allegations that the LDS Church Defendants "had any indication their conduct might cause bodily harm or that they engaged in conduct of such a nature as to be considered outrageous and intolerable" and therefore any claims for negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress failed as a matter of law.

¶ 8 On December 23, 1998, Franco appealed to this court. Franco argues that the trial court erred in holding that her claims for gross negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud are barred by the First Amendment. Specifically, Franco argues that her tort claims do not require an inquiry into the LDS Church's practices or religious beliefs and therefore the First Amendment does not offer the LDS Church Defendants any protection from her claims. Franco does not argue on appeal, however, that the trial court erred in its determination that her claim for clerical malpractice was barred by the First Amendment.

¶ 9 In response, the LDS Church Defendants argue that the essence of Franco's claims, like her clerical malpractice claim, was that the clergymen failed to properly perform their ecclesiastical counseling duties and that based on these allegations, the trial court correctly dismissed the claims under the First Amendment. Moreover, the LDS Church Defendants argue that Franco's claims for fraud, gross negligence, and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress fail as a matter of Utah law.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 10 Under rule 12(b)(6) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure, a motion to dismiss is proper "only where it clearly appears that the plaintiff or plaintiffs would not be entitled to relief under the facts alleged or under any state of facts they could prove to support their claim." Prows v. State, 822 P.2d 764, 766 (Utah 1991) (citing Colman v. Utah State Land Bd., 795 P.2d 622, 624 (Utah 1990)). Accordingly, we will affirm the trial court's dismissal "`only if it is apparent that as a matter of law, the plaintiff could not recover under the facts alleged.'" Educators Mut. Ins. Ass'n v. Allied Property & Cas. Ins. Co., 890 P.2d 1029, 1030 (Utah 1995) (quoting Lowe v. Sorenson Research Co., 779 P.2d 668, 669 (Utah 1989)). "Because we consider only the legal sufficiency of the complaint, we grant the trial court's ruling no deference"; we review it for correctness. Id.

ANALYSIS

I. OVERVIEW OF FIRST AMENDMENT PRINCIPLES

¶ 11 The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, see Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 303, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213 (1940),

provides in pertinent part: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof . ..." These two clauses are known, respectively, as the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. In this case, the LDS Church Defendants rely primarily on the Establishment Clause in making their constitutional argument that Franco's claims are barred by the First Amendment.⁸

¶ 12 In Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 29 L.Ed.2d 745 (1971), the United States Supreme Court explained that the Establishment Clause does not merely prohibit the establishment of a state church or a state religion, but commands "that there should be `no law respecting an establishment of religion.'" Id. at 612, 91 S.Ct. 2105 (quoting U.S. Const. amend. I). Accordingly, laws that do...