ROBERTS-DOUGLAS v. MEARES

• Decision Date: 03 November 1992
• Docket Number: No. 89-CV-55,No. 89-CV-354,89-CV-55,89-CV-354
• Parties: Shirley ROBERTS-DOUGLAS, et al., Appellants, v. John L. MEARES, et al., Appellees. EVANGEL TEMPLE, INC., et al., Appellants, v. Shirley ROBERTS-DOUGLAS, et al., Appellees.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

624 A.2d 405

Shirley ROBERTS-DOUGLAS, et al., Appellants, v. John L. MEARES, et al.,Appellees.EVANGEL TEMPLE, INC., et al., Appellants, v. Shirley ROBERTS-DOUGLAS,et al., Appellees.

Nos. 89-CV-55, 89-CV-354.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued November 7, 1991.

Decided November 3, 1992.

APPEAL FROM THE COURT, FREDERICK H. WEISBERG, J.

THIS PAGE CONTAINED HEADNOTES AND HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.

THIS PAGE CONTAINED HEADNOTES AND HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.

Christopher W. Mahoney and William E. Nelson, with whom John N. Hanson, Shelley V. Lucas, and Sherlee Stanford Nelson were on the briefs, for appellants in No. 89-CV-55 and appellees in No. 89-CV-354.

B. Michael Rauh, with whom Carroll D. Hauptle, Jr. was on the briefs, for appellees in No. 89-CV-55 and appellants in No. 89-CV-354.

Before TERRY, SCHWELB, and WAGNER, Associate Judges.

SCHWELB, Associate Judge:

I

THE CONTROVERSY

This case involves allegations by the plaintiffs, nine former parishioners of the Evangel Temple, formerly located in northeast Washington, of fraudulent and coercive conduct on the part of leaders of the church in connection with fund-raising for a proposed new facility. In their complaint, as amended, the plaintiffs claimed that the defendants, who include the Temple, its bishop (John L. Meares), and two of Bishop Meares' sons, fraudulently induced them to contribute large sums of money to the defendants' building funds by misrepresenting the Temple's financial condition and the individual defendants' salaries, as well as the need for and intended purpose of the contributions. According to the plaintiffs, the defendants then converted some of the funds so obtained to their own personal use.

The plaintiffs further alleged that the defendants abused the positions of trust and confidence which they held as ministers and unduly influenced the plaintiffs and other parishioners into contributing many thousands of dollars, far in excess of anything most of them could reasonably afford. The defendants' coercive tactics allegedly included repeated threats of divine retribution against those who failed to pledge or contribute sufficient amounts, as well as various types of harassment, e.g., singling out perceived delinquents by name and requiring them to run a humiliating gauntlet before deacons and members in good standing. In order to raise funds, according to some of the plaintiffs, the defendants incited parishioners to submit simultaneous applications for loans to several institutions without disclosing to any lender that other applications were also being made.

In their pleadings and in pretrial depositions, the defendants denied that they engaged in any fraud, coercion, or misappropriation, and contended that their conduct was protected by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. They also maintained that several of the plaintiffs were biased against them as a result of disputes over religious doctrine.

Prior to trial, the plaintiffs propounded broad interrogatories and requests for productionof documents to the defendants. The defendants objected to significant portions of the discovery, and the plaintiffs moved to compel. The trial judge granted the motion in part, but declined to compel responses to those discovery requests which related primarily to the financial condition of the individual defendants.

The defendants subsequently filed motions for summary judgment directed to all of the counts in the plaintiffs' complaint. The trial judge granted partial summary judgment as to the "undue influence" claim, in which the plaintiffs alleged that each of the defendants had occupied a position of trust and confidence vis-a-vis their parishioners and had abused that position by effectively coercing contributions from them.¹ The trial judge denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment with respect to the claims of fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress, holding that the plaintiffs had raised genuine issues of material fact and that if the allegations in the complaint were proved, the defendants' conduct would not be protected by the First Amendment.

The case then proceeded to a non-jury trial on the fraud claims, which had survived the defendants' pretrial motions. At the conclusion of the plaintiffs' case, the judge delivered a comprehensive oral opinion in which he granted judgment in favor of the defendants pursuant to Super.Ct.Civ.R. 41(b). Summarizing the testimony which he had heard and credited, including accounts of the hardships which the plaintiffs had endured in attempting to meet the defendants' demands, the judge stated that their evidence had "won my heart but not my head." The judge continued:

These plaintiffs are unquestionably all honest, sincere, and decent people. They come from different backgrounds and circumstances, but it seems to me at least [that] what unites them in this case, and what their common denominator is, is a deep abiding faith in God and, formerly at least, in their church.

It is impossible for me to listen to the testimony and not to feel tremendous sympathy for what they have gone through.

After detailing the contributions made to the Temple by individual plaintiffs and the financial sacrifices which they had felt constrained to make,² the judge recognizedthat it was his obligation to decide the case on the basis of the law and the evidence rather than considerations of sympathy. With apparent reluctance, he ruled for the defendants.

The judge found, among other things, that the plaintiffs had not proved by clear and convincing evidence that the defendants had misappropriated or diverted any funds or had made any false representations of fact upon which the plaintiffs had reasonably relied in contributing their money. He concluded that some of the statements which the parishioners described as fraudulent — e.g., that God would punish those who failed to make adequate contributions — were protected by the First Amendment. The judge also held that the plaintiffs had failed to make out a case of intentional infliction of emotional distress, emphasizing that no intent on the part of the defendants to cause such distress had been proved.

On appeal, the plaintiffs contend that the motions judge erroneously restricted their discovery and thereby prevented them from proving their fraud claim. They further maintain that the trial judge erred in granting the defendants' motion for summary judgment on the undue influence claim and in granting judgment for the defendants on the emotional distress claim at the conclusion of the plaintiffs' case. We agree in part with the plaintiffs' first contention, and direct that the judge reconsider, in the light of this opinion, the denial of certain portions of the requested discovery. The judge should then reappraise the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the fraud claims in light of any new proffer by the plaintiffs, based on any new responses by the defendants to such discovery and determine if the record should be reopened. With respect to the plaintiffs' second contention, we agree with the trial court's rejection, on these facts, of the claim of a "tort" of undue influence. We hold, however, that a gift inter vivos, like a testamentary disposition, may be set aside on equitable grounds on the basis of undue influence. In that connection, we reverse the order granting partial summary judgment on the undue influence count against plaintiffs Mae and Daniel N. Harrison, but affirm the summary judgment entered against the remaining seven plaintiffs. We also affirm the trial judge's entry, at the conclusion of the plaintiffs' case, of judgment in favor of the defendants on the claims by all plaintiffs of intentional infliction of emotional distress.³

II

THE FACTS⁴

Evangel Temple is a District of Columbia corporation organized for religious and educationalpurposes. It is governed by a Presbytery composed of ministers and headed by Bishop Meares. The Presbytery holds title to all church property and governs the religious and temporal affairs of the church through a Council comprised of all elders, ministers, and deacons.

The activities of Evangel Temple are financed largely by the members of the congregation, for financial contributions to support the Temple's activities are an integral obligation of membership under the Temple's corporate charter and by-laws.⁵ Members not only tithe, by contributing a set proportion of their income to the church, but are also expected to donate to designated projects. In 1975, the Temple was able to establish its home on Rhode Island Avenue in northeast Washington by means of donations from its members.

By the mid-1980's, according to the defendants, the membership of Evangel Temple had grown substantially, and a larger facility was needed for worship and for various new programs. Between July and September of 1985, the church elders began organizing a building fund designed to enable them to construct a large new facility in Largo, Maryland. This facility was to include not only a new church, but also television facilities, a school, a gymnasium, and homes for church leaders. Most or all of the plaintiffs participated in the fund-raising programs which followed.

The controversy in this case centers upon the means used by church leaders, and by Bishop Meares and his two sons in particular, to obtain contributions to the building fund. The plaintiffs have characterized the defendants' fund-raising techniques as a "campaign of humiliation, insult, harassment and intimidation against them." They have alleged that contributions were secured by coercion and undue influence, and that the defendants misrepresented the financial circumstances of the Temple and of the individual defendants, the size of the contributions made by church leaders to the building...