Van Osdol v. Vogt, 93CA1032

• Decision Date: 25 August 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93CA1032,93CA1032
• Citation: 892 P.2d 402
• Parties: 65 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1558 Holley E. VAN OSDOL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Hugh Frederick VOGT, individually and in his capacity as an agent of the Mile Hi Church of Religious Science; the Mile Hi Church of Religious Science, a Colorado non-profit corporation; and the United Churches of Religious Science, a California corporation, Defendants-Appellees. . II
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

Page 402

892 P.2d 402

65 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1558

Holley E. VAN OSDOL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Hugh Frederick VOGT, individually and in his capacity as an agent of the Mile Hi Church of Religious Science; the Mile Hi Church of Religious Science, a Colorado non-profit corporation; and the United Churches of Religious Science a California corporation, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 93CA1032.

Colorado Court of Appeals,

Div. II.

Aug. 25, 1994.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 22, 1994.

Certiorari Granted March 20, 1995.

Feiger, Collison & Killmer, P.C., Lynn D. Feiger, Gilbert M. Roman, Darold W. Killmer, Denver, for plaintiff-appellant.

The Law Firm of Leonard M. Chesler, Leonard M. Chesler, John S. Tatum, Denver, for defendant-appellee Hugh F. Vogt.

Quigley & Bruce, Neil Quigley, Denver, for defendant-appellee Mile Hi Church of Religious Science.

White & Steele, P.C., Sandra S. Coleman, Denver, for defendant-appellee United Churches of Religious Science.

Opinion by Judge TAUBMAN.

In a question of first impression, this appeal raises the viability of sexual harassment claims brought on behalf of a minister when weighed against the First Amendment rights of the minister who allegedly harassed her and that minister's church.

Pursuant to C.R.C.P. 54(b), plaintiff, Holley E. Van Osdol appeals the trial court's dismissal of seven of her thirteen claims against defendants, Hugh F. Vogt, Mile Hi Church of Religious Science (Mile Hi), and United Church of Religious Science (UCRS), based upon First Amendment grounds. We affirm and remand for further proceedings.

The facts alleged in the amended complaint are as follows.

Between 1968 and 1975, when Van Osdol was a minor, Vogt, who is Van Osdol's stepfather in addition to being a minister of Mile Hi, committed various acts of sexual assault against her when they resided together. Van Osdol did not recognize that she had suffered severe emotional distress as a result of this sexual abuse until January 1992.

In 1991, Van Osdol was a minister for UCRS in Renton, Washington, and later that year, she moved to Denver and proposed to open a new UCRS church in the southern Denver metro area. After notifying area UCRS churches and receiving no objection, UCRS granted Van Osdol a novitiate minister's license and approved her new church.

Vogt is a past president of UCRS and serves as senior minister at Mile Hi. After receiving her license and permission to open a new church, Van Osdol learned that Vogt was allegedly sexually harassing women church employees and a woman parishioner. She reported Vogt's harassment, as well as sexual abuse she had suffered from Vogt as a minor, to the UCRS officers, the highest governing body of UCRS. Thereafter, Vogt and another official at Mile Hi filed charges with the UCRS officers against Van Osdol, asserting that her allegations were false and requesting that they investigate the matter.

After an investigation, the UCRS officers revoked Van Osdol's license and denied her the opportunity to open a new church.

Thereafter, Van Osdol initiated this action against Vogt, Mile Hi, and UCRS asserting the following claims: (1) illegal retaliation in violation of the federal sexual harassment statute, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e (1988) (Title VII), against UCRS; (2) breach of fiduciary duty against Mile Hi and UCRS; (3) interference with economic advantage against Vogt and Mile Hi; (4) interference with contract against Vogt and Mile Hi; (5) and (6) breach of contract and promissory estoppel against UCRS; (7) and (8) assault and battery against Vogt; (9) outrageous conduct against Vogt, Mile Hi, and UCRS; (10) breach of fiduciary duty by a person in a position of trust against Vogt; and (11), (12), and (13) negligent hiring, supervision, and retention of Vogt against Mile Hi and UCRS. See Appendix A.

The trial court, inter alia, granted defendants' motions to dismiss the claims for retaliation, breach of fiduciary duty, interference with economic advantage, interference with contract, and negligent hiring, supervision, and retention. In so doing, the court concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to review the decisions of the church and its officials under the First Amendment and that, thus, Van Osdol had failed to state claims on which relief could be granted. The trial court granted C.R.C.P. 54(b) certification as to all of the dismissed claims except outrageous conduct.

I. Standard of Review

In ruling on a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, the trial court must accept the allegations of the complaint as true and determine whether those allegations, when viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiff, entitle the plaintiff to relief. If relief could be granted under such circumstances, the complaint is sufficient. Schlitters v. State, 787 P.2d 656 (Colo.App.1989).

Appellate courts are in the same position as trial courts in reviewing the dismissal of claims. Espinoza v. O'Dell, 633 P.2d 455 (Colo.1981).

II. Title VII Retaliation

Presenting an issue of first impression for Colorado appellate courts, Van Osdol argues that the trial court improperly dismissed her claim alleging that UCRS terminated her license and ministry in violation of Title VII's provision prohibiting retaliation against employees who oppose practices made unlawful by it. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3 (1988). She contends that the trial court could decide this issue without becoming entangled in religious matters protected by the freedom of religion provisions of the First Amendment. We disagree.

The First Amendment prohibits any "law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." U.S. Const. amend. 1.

Title VII makes sexual harassment an unlawful employment practice. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 (1988); see Heelan v. Johns-Manville Corp., 451 F.Supp. 1382 (D.Colo.1978). The retaliation provision of Title VII states, in relevant part, that an employer may not discriminate against an employee:

because he has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by this subchapter, or because he has made a charge ... under this subchapter.

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3 (1988).

One court, considering whether a Title VII action may be brought by a minister against his or her church, stated:

[D]etermination of whose voice speaks for the church is per se a religious matter.... We cannot imagine an area of inquiry less suited to a temporal court for decision; evaluation of the gifts and graces of a minister must be left to ecclesiastical institutions. This is the view of every court that has been confronted by this genre of dispute. See, e.g., Rayburn v. General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, 772 F.2d 1164 (4th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 3333, 92 L.Ed.2d 739 (1986).

In McClure v. Salvation Army, 460 F.2d 553 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 896, 93 S.Ct. 132, 34 L.Ed.2d 153 (1972), the Fifth Circuit ruled that ... [m]erely maintaining such a suit would produce an investigation and review of ... matters of church administration and government.... 460 F.2d at 558-60.

Minker v. Baltimore Annual Conference of United Methodist Church, 894 F.2d 1354, 1357 (D.C.Cir.1990). Accord Serbian Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696, 96 S.Ct. 2372, 49 L.Ed.2d 151 (1976) (civil court must accept ecclesiastical termination decisions of church tribunals as it finds them); Gonzalez v. Roman Catholic Archbishop, 280 U.S. 1, 50 S.Ct. 5, 74 L.Ed. 131 (1929) (civil courts may not inquire into clergy hiring decisions of church); Watson v. Jones, 13 Wall 679, 20 L.Ed. 666 (1872) (civil courts must give deference to religious decisions of church); Scharon v. St. Luke's Episcopal Presbyterian Hospitals, 929 F.2d 360 (8th Cir.1991); Natal v. Christian & Missionary Alliance, 878 F.2d 1575 (1st Cir.1989); Rayburn v. General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, supra; McClure v. Salvation Army, supra.

Van Osdol contends that the above cases are distinguishable since they did not involve retaliation claims and urges that the trial court need not entangle itself in religious matters in hearing this claim. However, she concedes that one of the elements required to prove retaliation is that "the decision to rescind the permission to begin the new church was causally connected to [her] opposition to illegal discrimination."

Thus, to hear this claim, the trial court would be forced to inquire into the good faith of the position asserted by the UCRS officers in revoking Van Osdol's license and ministry to determine whether their actions were retaliatory in nature, and this type of inquiry is prohibited under the First Amendment. Watson v. Jones, supra (questions of discipline, faith, ecclesiastical rule, custom or law decided by the highest of the church judicatories are final and binding upon civil courts); Minker v. Baltimore Annual Conference of United Methodist Church, supra (whose voice speaks for the church is a per se religious matter); Scharon v. St. Luke's Episcopal Presbyterian Hospitals, supra (very process of inquiring into church-made decisions violates First Amendment); Rayburn v. General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, supra (First Amendment protects the act of a decision rather than the motivation behind it). Cf. Alberts v. Devine, 395 Mass. 59, 479 N.E.2d 113 (1985) (where church violated physician-patient confidentiality by obtaining information from minister's psychiatrist regarding his fitness to continue as a minister, court could properly inquire into church processes).

Van Osdol also contends that public policy warrants reinstatement of her Title VII claim because to deny it would chill the eradication of unlawful discrimination against non-ministerial employees within religious institutions. Despite what may be a legitimate policy concern, the overwhelming majority of case law prevents secular courts from inquiry into a church's motivation in rejecting or terminating a minister. Had Van Osdol been an...