Sanders v. Casa View Baptist Church, 96-10870

• Decision Date: 11 February 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-10870,96-10870
• Citation: 134 F.3d 331
• Parties: 77 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 51, 74 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,532 Robyn SANDERS; Cynthia Mullanix, Plaintiffs-Appellants-Appellees, v. CASA VIEW BAPTIST CHURCH, et al., Defendants, Casa View Baptist Church, Defendant-Appellee, Shelby Baucum, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 331

134 F.3d 331

77 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 51, 74 Empl.

Prac. Dec. P 45,532

Robyn SANDERS; Cynthia Mullanix, Plaintiffs-Appellants-Appellees, v. CASA VIEW BAPTIST CHURCH, et al., Defendants Casa View Baptist Church, Defendant-Appellee Shelby Baucum, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 96-10870.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Feb. 11, 1998.

Rehearing Denied March 26, 1998.

Robert Glenn Chadwick, Jr., Dallas, TX, Eric Charles Eisenbraun, Dallas, TX, for Mullanix and Sanders.

Bryant Scott McFall, John E. McFall, McFall Law Firm, Dallas, TX, for Casa View Baptist Church.

Corwin Ray Fargason, Harding, Bass, Fargason & Booth, Lubbock, TX, Robert William St. Clair, Lubbock, TX, for Baucum.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, and BENAVIDES and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

BENAVIDES, Circuit Judge:

The plaintiffs, Robyn Sanders and Lisa Mullanix, brought suit against their employer, Casa View Baptist Church (CVBC), and one of its ministers, Shelby Baucum, for alleged violations of Title VII and Texas law arising out of Baucum's conduct as their marriage counselor and supervisor at CVBC. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of CVBC. The claims against Baucum--that he committed malpractice and breached his fiduciary duties as a marriage counselor by, among other things, encouraging and consummating a sexual relationship with each plaintiff--proceeded to trial. The jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded punitive damages on each claim.

On appeal, Baucum asserts that the plaintiffs' claims and the district court's jury instructions were barred by the First Amendment, and that the plaintiffs' punitive damages awards were excessive. Also before us are the plaintiffs' contentions that CVBC was not entitled to summary judgment and that the district court abused its discretion by excluding an untimely affidavit from the summary judgment record. We affirm.

I.

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo "under the same standards as that applied by the district court. Summary judgment is required when the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, presents no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Ellert v. University of Texas, 52 F.3d 543, 545 (5th Cir.1995). Consequently, we set forth the pertinent facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. ¹

In 1988, CVBC hired Baucum to be its Minister of Education and Administration (MEA). As MEA, Baucum's duties did not include counseling, and he knew that he was not a member of the CVBC staff responsible for providing spiritual counseling to CVBC members. He also knew that CVBC had a written policy of referring church members in need of non-pastoral counseling to a licensed professional counselor.

In December 1990, Mullanix, a member of CVBC, began seeing Baucum for marital counseling. In February 1991, CVBC hired Sanders as an administrative secretary, with Baucum as her immediate supervisor. Shortly thereafter, Sanders, like Mullanix, began seeing Baucum for marital counseling.

Mullanix and Sanders each began this counseling at Baucum's invitation after he represented that he was qualified by education and experience to provide marriage counseling. They believed that Baucum was authorized by CVBC to provide marital counseling, in part because he told each of them that he counseled other women at CVBC. The jury found that Baucum entered into fiduciary relationships with the plaintiffs because he acquired influence and gained their trust and confidence during the course of these separate counseling relationships.

Although Baucum testified that he sometimes discussed scripture in his counseling sessions with Mullanix and Sanders, the jury found that the counseling he provided was "essentially secular" in nature. At trial, the plaintiffs presented evidence that Baucum breached his duties as a marriage counselor, not only by expressing love and affection for each of them and encouraging them both to express these feelings for him, but also by engaging in sexual intercourse with each of them on a number of occasions. They also presented evidence that Baucum breached his fiduciary duties, not only by having sexual intercourse with them, but also by disclosing their confidences, including intimate details of their marriages and sexual histories.

In March 1991, CVBC hired Mullanix as a receptionist, and like Sanders, she was supervised by Baucum. The plaintiffs' sexual relationships with Baucum continued while he was their supervisor, and each plaintiff claims that on at least one occasion, she slept with him because of her belief that his behavior implied that she would be discharged if she did not. Further, after his counseling relationship with each plaintiff ended in September 1991, Baucum began both to criticize their work performance and discourage their hopes of promotions. He also engaged in behavior and conversation of a sexual nature that was unwelcome at that time.

On September 22, 1991, the plaintiffs informed one another of their relationships and problems with Baucum. Together they disclosed the existence of these relationships and Baucum's behavior to a member of CVBC's Personnel Committee (PC) on September 23, 1991. Baucum was forced to resign his position as MEA on September 25, 1991. On November 22, 1991, CVBC fired Mullanix and Sanders because they committed adultery in violation of church policies.

II.

After discovery, the district court granted CVBC's motion for summary judgment on the plaintiffs' Title VII and state law claims, thereby disposing of the entire case against CVBC. With respect to their discriminatory discharge, hostile work environment, and quid pro quo claims, the district court held that the plaintiffs did not produce evidence indicating that CVBC's justification for their dismissals was pretextual or that CVBC knew or should have known of Baucum's alleged sexual harassment. Concerning their claims under Texas law, the district court held that there was no basis in the record for holding CVBC legally responsible for Baucum's misconduct under the doctrine of respondeat superior or for concluding that CVBC knew or should have known that Baucum presented a risk of harm to the plaintiffs. The district court then refused to allow the plaintiffs to supplement the summary judgment record with an untimely affidavit.

The district court granted partial summary judgment in favor of Baucum, but allowed the plaintiffs' claims that he committed malpractice as a marriage counselor and breached his fiduciary duties to go to trial. At the close of the evidence, the district court denied Baucum's motion for judgment as a matter of law and overruled his objection to the jury instructions. The jury found for the plaintiffs on each count and awarded them each $42,500 in punitive damages for Baucum's malpractice and $42,500 in punitive damages for his breach of his fiduciary duties. After the verdict, Baucum renewed his motion for judgment as a matter of law, again arguing that these claims were barred by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. This motion was denied, as was his claim that the punitive damages were excessive because they twice punished him for the same conduct.

III.

A.

On appeal, Baucum argues that because the First Amendment precludes judicial review of certain ecclesiastical disputes, his secular misconduct as the plaintiffs' counselor was not actionable because it occurred within two inherently ecclesiastical, rather than "purely secular," counseling relationships. ² Specifically, he contends: 1) that he was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the plaintiffs' claims that he committed malpractice as a marriage counselor and breached his fiduciary duties because his trial testimony--that he occasionally discussed scripture in his counseling sessions with the plaintiffs--demonstrated that the counseling he provided was not purely secular; 2) that in the alternative, the case should be remanded because he was entitled to a jury instruction that required the jury to find that the counseling he provided was purely secular in nature and thus a matter of judicial rather than ecclesiastical concern; or 3) that he was otherwise entitled to judgment as a matter of law because the evidence demonstrated that the plaintiffs' claims were in essence noncognizable claims for "clergy malpractice." ³ We disagree.

The First Amendment does not categorically insulate religious relationships from judicial scrutiny, for to do so would necessarily extend constitutional protection to the secular components of these relationships. Although Baucum's contention that the Free Exercise Clause prohibits the judiciary from reviewing the conduct of those involved in relationships that are not purely secular in nature might, if adopted, foster the development of some important spiritual relationships by eliminating the possibility of civil or criminal liability for participating members of the clergy, the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom cannot be construed to protect secular beliefs and behavior, even when they comprise part of an otherwise religious relationship between a minister and a member of his or her congregation. To hold otherwise would impermissibly place a religious leader in a preferred position in our society. Cf. County of Allegheny v. ACLU, 492 U.S. 573, 593-94, 109 S.Ct. 3086, 3101, 106 L.Ed.2d 472 (1989) (interpreting the First Amendment to preclude the state from favoring religion over nonreligion). The district court, therefore, did not err by denying Baucum's motion for judgment as a matter of law nor by rejecting his proposed jury instructions, which would have required the jury to find that his counseling relationships with the plaintiffs were purely secular in order for it to find that his secular misconduct within these...