in Re Alief Vietnamese Alliance Church and Phan Phung Hung ( 2019 )

Opinion issued April 30, 2019
In The
Court of Appeals
For The
First District of Texas
————————————
NO. 01-18-00127-CV
———————————
IN RE ALIEF VIETNAMESE ALLIANCE CHURCH AND PHAN PHUNG
HUNG, Relators
Original Proceeding on Petition for Writ of Mandamus
OPINION
This mandamus proceeding involves a dispute between real party in interest
Paul Nguyen, who filed a defamation suit against relators, the Alief Vietnamese
Alliance Church and its senior pastor Phan Phung Hung (collectively, “the
Church”).1 The Church filed a plea to the jurisdiction, arguing that the trial court
1
The underlying case is Paul Nguyen v. Alief Vietnamese Alliance Church and Phan
Phung Hung, cause number 2016-53806, pending in the 189th District Court of
Harris County, Texas, the Hon. William Burke presiding.
should dismiss the suit under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine. After the trial
court denied the Church’s plea, the Church filed this petition for writ of mandamus.
In one issue, the Church requests that we grant mandamus relief and order the trial
court to vacate its denial of the plea to the jurisdiction and dismiss the suit because
the trial court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction under the ecclesiastical abstention
doctrine.
We conditionally grant mandamus relief.
Background
In August 2016, Nguyen filed suit against the Alief Vietnamese Alliance
Church—a member church of the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA), a
worldwide Protestant denomination—and its senior pastor Phan Phung Hung,
asserting a claim of defamation. Nguyen alleged that he was instrumental in starting
the Church in 1990 and that, in the years since the Church opened, he has served in
various leadership roles, including as a deacon, as the church treasurer, and as an
associate pastor. Nguyen alleged that he served as interim pastor during 2011 and
2012, and then the district office of the Christian and Missionary Alliance
Vietnamese District—the governing district of the C&MA denomination over the
Church—recommended that Hung become the new senior pastor. Hung began
serving in this capacity in November 2012.
2
Nguyen alleged that, at the end of 2014, as his term of serving as secretary of
the Church’s board and as a deacon was coming to an end, he felt he needed to take
a break from ministry, and he decided not to seek re-appointment to leadership
positions.2
In January 2015, Nguyen’s wife, Mai, approached Hung for marital
counseling, allegedly telling Hung that she had seen Nguyen having lunch with two
female church members and that she was concerned about Nguyen’s fidelity. Hung
held a meeting at his home with Nguyen and Mai. Nguyen allegedly informed Hung
and Mai that he had been asked by the other women to provide marital and spiritual
guidance to them and that he was not romantically involved with either woman.
Hung suggested that the three of them pray and that they not mention the incident
again.
Several months later, in August 2015, Hung and Nguyen began having
conflicts concerning issues within the Church, including the proper form of address
in Vietnamese for Hung’s wife and Hung’s decision to take a month-long trip to
Vietnam without informing the Church leadership of his plans. Nguyen alleged that,
2
In his deposition, Nguyen testified that he asked Hung to “let [him] step down and
take a break” because he had served as Church secretary for five years. At a meeting
before the congregation in mid-January 2015, Nguyen told the congregation that he
wished to take a break, and he asked the Church members not to vote for him to be
in a leadership position. He stated that he did not step down from the secretary
position as a form of self-discipline.
3
during a phone conversation with Hung, Hung stated that Nguyen and Mai had
“criticized Pastor Hung’s way of pastoring to the members within the Church,” that
they had “caused emotional hurts” and had offended Hung and other Church
members, and that Hung “was tired of dealing with issues related to” Nguyen. In
response, Nguyen “decided to take a break from attending the Church.”
Nguyen alleged that, after several weeks of his not attending services at the
Church, fellow parishioners began questioning Hung about Nguyen’s absence, and
Hung reportedly told one of the Church officers that Nguyen had “committed
adultery with a woman in the church and that is why [Nguyen] was no longer a
Deacon and why [Nguyen] did not attend services.”
Nguyen further alleged that, at a September 2015 meeting of Vietnamese
pastors in Austin, Texas, Hung told the other pastors in attendance that Nguyen was
no longer a member or elder of the Church but did not state a reason why. According
to Nguyen, one of the pastors at the meeting contacted Nguyen and asked why he
was no longer a member of the Church. He alleged that this surprised him because
he thought he was still a member.
Hung allegedly also informed the Church board on September 20, 2015, that
Nguyen and Mai “were no longer members of the Church as Pastor Hung had
terminated [Nguyen] as a member of the Church.” Nguyen alleged that Hung also
informed all of the deacons of the Church that Nguyen had committed adultery with
4
a fellow Church member. Nguyen also alleged that he contacted members of the
C&MA Vietnamese District leadership in an attempt to solve the matter, but the
district leadership took no action. Nguyen alleged that he informed the deacon board
in October 2015 that Hung had violated the law by slandering him and that he
“wanted the Church to be at peace and for things to settle down.” Nguyen declined
invitations from the Church leadership to meet with the deacons.
Nguyen filed this suit for defamation against the Church and Hung in August
2016. In his suit, Nguyen alleged that his reputation in the Church community, and
in the larger Vietnamese Christian community, had been damaged by Hung’s
statements. He alleged, “[M]ost of the members of the Church, along with other
church leaders within the city of Houston and the denomination, have learned of this
accusation, which is completely false.” Nguyen sought actual and exemplary
damages from the Church and Hung.
The Church filed a plea to the jurisdiction, arguing that the trial court lacked
subject-matter jurisdiction over the dispute based on the ecclesiastical abstention
doctrine. The Church argued that, even if Nguyen’s allegations were true, “the
disputes identified are replete with issues of church discipline, ecclesiastical
government, and the conformity of the members of the church to the standard of
morals required of them,” matters that courts have repeatedly held should not be
addressed in the secular courts. The Church argued that resolving Nguyen’s
5
defamation claim would “impinge upon the internal matters of [Church]
governance,” especially because Nguyen was not just a member of the Church, but
had been an associate pastor and a former deacon.
As evidence, the Church attached to its plea to the jurisdiction the bylaws of
the C&MA Vietnamese District, as well as the C&MA Manuel, which included,
among other topics, procedures for resolving disciplinary matters within the Church.
Specifically, the Manual for the C&MA contained a “Uniform Policy on Discipline,
Restoration, and Appeal,” which applies to all elected personnel of C&MA entities
and all members of C&MA churches. The discipline policy states:
In Matthew 18:15-20 Jesus outlines the steps which should be taken to
resolve conflict and exercise redemptive and restorative discipline in
the church. The process begins with private conversation. However, if
private conversation fails to lead a person to repentance, Jesus
commands that we ask other believers to become involved in these
conversations. If he will not listen, Jesus said, take one or two others
along (Matthew 18:16). When personal conversations fail to resolve the
matter, Jesus instructs us to “tell it to the church.” This signals a move
to more specifically defined disciplinary procedures outlined in this
document.
The C&MA encourages the mediation of personal conflicts whenever
such measures are both possible and appropriate. Within the polity of
the C&MA, we have purposed to fill Jesus’ instructions to exercise
church discipline by providing an orderly procedure by which the
appropriate ecclesiastical authority may be informed and respond.
These disciplinary policies and procedures are implemented only after
other appropriate steps have proven ineffective. They also recognize
that some sins are of a public nature and cannot be addressed with
personal conversation alone.
6
If an offense is not likely to cause imminent harm to others or to the
testimony of Christ, and if the offense is not of such a nature that it
would ordinarily disqualify a person from positions of leadership in the
Church, the proper ecclesiastical authority may choose to confront an
individual entrapped by sin privately to establish the facts and
encourage repentance of any sin discovered. If the individual
acknowledges his/her sin and repents, the matter may end there, unless
a confession to additional people and public or private restitution is
needed. In such cases, and when individuals have confessed of their
own accord, the proper ecclesiastical authorities may, after an informed
investigation, determine the extent and nature of disciplinary actions
which may be imposed without a formal disciplinary hearing.
If an individual is unwilling to acknowledge or repent of sin, or if an
offense is likely to harm others or lead them into sin, cause division or
disruption within the church, or compromise the public testimony of
Christ and the C&MA, the proper Church authority shall initiate formal
disciplinary procedures as determined by this Policy.
(Emphasis in original.)
The discipline policy sets out formal procedures to be followed in
investigating complaints of misconduct. The policy also lists several examples of
conduct that can give rise to a disciplinary proceeding, including “[m]oral failure
involving sexual misconduct,” “[s]preading false rumors about another,” and
“[c]ausing dissension or division within the church.” The policy states that
“[d]isciplinary proceedings will be conducted with confidentiality in all aspects of
the proceedings; however, there is no guarantee of confidentiality within disciplinary
proceedings for any participant” and provides that, in some cases, disclosure of the
particular facts might be necessary “in connection with investigating and remedying
the charge and considering and carrying out possible restoration.”
7
After a visiting judge denied the Church’s plea to the jurisdiction, the Church
filed a second plea. In addition to the arguments raised in its initial plea to the
jurisdiction, the Church also attached Nguyen’s deposition as evidence. In his
deposition, Nguyen testified that his decision to step away from his leadership
positions within the Church in early 2015 was unrelated to Mai’s accusation that he
had been involved in an adulterous relationship. He testified that, during the January
2015 meeting with Mai and Hung, he repeatedly denied committing adultery, and he
stated that he continued to be involved with the Church for several months after that,
albeit not in a formal leadership position. Nguyen also testified that, after he learned
that Hung had allegedly told Church deacons that Nguyen had committed adultery,
he wrote to the district offices seeking their assistance in resolving the matter.
Nguyen stated that he brought the underlying lawsuit because the district office
failed to act. Nguyen also testified that he sued the Church, in addition to Hung,
because members of the deacon board informed members of the Church and at least
one former member of the Church that Nguyen had committed adultery.
In response to the Church’s second plea to the jurisdiction, Nguyen argued
that this case involved Hung’s lying about Nguyen’s behavior and did not involve
matters of church discipline, ecclesiastical government, or conformity of church
members to required standards of morals. He argued that the ecclesiastical abstention
8
doctrine “does not prohibit courts from determining a case of defamation where the
defendant, who happened to be a pastor, lied to the public about a parishioner.”
Hung testified that, from January 2015 through August 2015, he did not
inform anyone at the Church about Nguyen’s alleged adultery. Hung also testified
that he told the adultery allegations to one of the Church board members and his wife
“in order to explain to them the reason why [Hung] did not allow [Nguyen] to work
in the church.” Hung also testified that Nguyen had contacted the Church board
members and called Hung dictatorial and had asserted that Hung could not carry out
the position of pastor. Hung further testified that, between January and July 2015,
the Church did not discipline Nguyen for the alleged adultery, but Nguyen
“voluntarily accepted the discipline” by removing himself from the Church board
and withdrawing from other leadership roles.
Nguyen also cited excerpts from Hung’s deposition and argued that those
excerpts were evidence that the conflict that arose between the two men in August
2015 was unrelated to Mai’s earlier accusation of adultery, and that it was only after
this unrelated conflict had occurred that Hung defamed Nguyen to Church members.
Hung stated in his deposition that he and Nguyen had a conflict in August 2015
because Nguyen had told Church members that Hung had asked everyone to refer to
his wife by a specific title in Vietnamese, and Hung told Nguyen that when Nguyen
“says something untrue like that, it causes a confusion in the church.” It was only
9
after the conflicts over issues within the Church arose in August 2015 and Nguyen
quit attending services that other Vietnamese pastors and the Church deacons
became involved in questioning what had happened and that Nguyen contacted the
C&MA Vietnamese District leadership in an attempt to solve the matter. However,
Nguyen declined invitations to meet with the Church’s leadership and subsequently
brought this suit.
The trial court denied the Church’s second plea to the jurisdiction, and this
mandamus proceeding followed.
Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine
In its sole issue, the Church contends that the trial court clearly abused its
discretion when the court denied its plea to the jurisdiction because the ecclesiastical
abstention doctrine applies and deprives the court of subject-matter jurisdiction.
A. Mandamus Standard of Review
Generally, to be entitled to mandamus relief, the relator must demonstrate that
the trial court abused its discretion and that it has no adequate remedy by appeal. See
In re J.B. Hunt Transp., Inc., 492 S.W.3d 287, 299 (Tex. 2016) (orig. proceeding);
Walker v. Packer, 827 S.W.2d 833, 839 (Tex. 1992) (orig. proceeding). A trial court
abuses its discretion if it acts arbitrarily, unreasonably, or without regard to guiding
legal principles. In re J.B. Hunt Transp., 492 S.W.3d at 293–94 (quoting Bocquet v.
Herring, 972 S.W.2d 19, 21 (Tex. 1998)). A trial court has no discretion in
10
determining what the law is or in applying the law to the facts. Id. at 294 (citing
Walker, 827 S.W.2d at 840). Thus, the trial court’s failure to analyze or apply the
law correctly constitutes an abuse of discretion. In re Nationwide Ins. Co. of Am.,
494 S.W.3d 708, 712 (Tex. 2016) (orig. proceeding).
A plea questioning the trial court’s subject-matter jurisdiction over a dispute
raises a question of law that we review de novo. Westbrook v. Penley, 231 S.W.3d
389, 394 (Tex. 2007) (citing Tex. Dep’t of Parks & Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d
217, 226 (Tex. 2004)). A party may raise lack of subject-matter jurisdiction via a
plea to the jurisdiction “when religious-liberty grounds form the basis for the
jurisdictional challenge.” Id. We first look to the plaintiff’s pleadings to determine
whether the facts pleaded affirmatively demonstrate that subject-matter jurisdiction
exists. Id. at 394–95. If the pleadings are insufficient to establish jurisdiction but do
not affirmatively demonstrate an incurable jurisdictional defect, the plaintiff should
be afforded the opportunity to replead. Id. at 395. A plea to the jurisdiction should
not be granted if a fact issue exists regarding the court’s jurisdiction, but if the
pleadings affirmatively demonstrate an incurable jurisdictional defect, the plea to
the jurisdiction must be granted. Id.; see Miranda, 133 S.W.3d at 227–28.
A trial court has no discretion and must dismiss the case as a ministerial act
when it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over the dispute. In re St. Thomas High
Sch., 495 S.W.3d 500, 506 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2016, orig.
11
proceeding). Mandamus relief is an appropriate remedy when the trial court acts
without subject-matter jurisdiction. Id.; see In re Crawford & Co., 458 S.W.3d 920,
929 (Tex. 2015) (per curiam) (granting mandamus relief and stating that because
trial court lacked jurisdiction over case, court should have dismissed case). If a trial
court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over the underlying proceedings, the relator
need not establish that it lacks an adequate remedy by appeal. In re St. Thomas High
Sch., 495 S.W.3d at 514 (stating also that appeal is often inadequate to protect
important First Amendment rights relating to free exercise of religion); In re
Godwin, 293 S.W.3d 742, 747 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2009, orig. proceeding
[mand. denied]) (stating that, generally, trial court’s ruling on plea to jurisdiction is
not subject to mandamus relief because adequate remedy by appeal often exists, but
“appeal is often inadequate to protect the rights of religious organizations when there
are important issues relating to the constitutional protections afforded by the First
Amendment”).
B. Governing Law
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, applicable to the
states through the Fourteenth Amendment, provides in part that “Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.” Westbrook, 231 S.W.3d at 395 (quoting U.S. CONST. amend. I); Patton v.
Jones, 212 S.W.3d 541, 546–47 (Tex. App.—Austin 2006, pet. denied).
12
Governmental action may burden the free exercise of religion by interfering with an
individual’s observance or practice of a particular faith or by encroaching on a
church’s ability to manage its internal affairs. Westbrook, 231 S.W.3d at 395. The
Constitution requires that government and religion remain separate and “forbids the
government from interfering with the right of hierarchical religious bodies to
establish their own internal rules and regulations and create tribunals for
adjudicating disputes over religious matters.” Tran v. Fiorenza, 934 S.W.2d 740,
743 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1996, no writ).
“Churches have a fundamental right ‘to decide for themselves, free from state
interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.’”
Westbrook, 231 S.W.3d at 397 (quoting Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral of Russian
Orthodox Church in N. Am., 344 U.S. 94, 116 (1952)). “It is a core tenet of First
Amendment jurisprudence that, in resolving civil claims, courts must be careful not
to intrude upon internal matters of church governance.” Id. The Free Exercise Clause
of the First Amendment thus “precludes civil courts from delving into matters
focused on ‘theological controversy, church discipline, ecclesiastical government,
or the conformity of the members of a church to the standard of morals required of
them.’” Thiagarajan v. Tadepalli, 430 S.W.3d 589, 594 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th
Dist.] 2014, pet. denied) (quoting Serbian E. Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, 426
U.S. 696, 713–14 (1976)). “Although wrongs may exist in the ecclesiastical setting,
13
and although the administration of the church may be inadequate to provide a
remedy, the preservation of the free exercise of religion is deemed so important a
principle it overshadows the inequities that may result from its liberal application.”
Williams v. Gleason, 26 S.W.3d 54, 59 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2000, pet.
denied); Tran, 934 S.W.2d at 743.
However, the First Amendment does not necessarily bar all claims that may
touch upon religious conduct. Westbrook, 231 S.W.3d at 396; In re Godwin, 293
S.W.3d at 749 (“[T]here are indeed limits to what can be said by church officials
from the pulpit.”). Churches, congregations, and church hierarchy “exist and
function within the civil community,” and therefore they are “amenable to rules
governing property rights, torts, and criminal conduct.” Williams, 26 S.W.3d at 59.
“Courts do not have jurisdiction to decide questions of an ecclesiastical or inherently
religious nature, so as to those questions they must defer to decisions of appropriate
ecclesiastical decision makers.” Masterson v. Diocese of Nw. Tex., 422 S.W.3d 594,
605–06 (Tex. 2013). But the Texas courts are “bound to exercise jurisdiction vested
in them by the Texas Constitution and cannot delegate their judicial prerogative
where jurisdiction exists.” Id. at 606. Thus, the Texas courts decide non-
ecclesiastical issues based on the same neutral principles of law applicable to other
entities while deferring to religious entities’ decisions on ecclesiastical and church
polity questions. Id. at 596.
14
The determination of whether a suit is ecclesiastical in nature is made by
examining the substance and effect of the plaintiff’s petition. Williams, 26 S.W.3d
at 59; Tran, 934 S.W.2d at 743 (“The difficulty comes in determining whether a
particular dispute is ‘ecclesiastical’ or simply a civil law controversy in which
church officials happen to be involved.”).
Here, Nguyen has pled the tort of defamation in the underlying case.
Actionable defamation requires proof of (1) publication of a false statement of fact
to a third party, (2) that was defamatory concerning the plaintiff, (3) with the
requisite degree of fault, and (4) that proximately caused damages. Anderson v.
Durant, 550 S.W.3d 605, 617–18 (Tex. 2018). “Under Texas law, a statement is
defamatory if it tends to injure a person’s reputation and thereby expose the person
to public hatred, contempt, ridicule, or financial injury or to impeach any person’s
honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation.” Tex. Disposal Sys. Landfill, Inc. v. Waste
Mgmt. Holdings, Inc., 219 S.W.3d 563, 580 (Tex. App.—Austin 2007, pet. denied);
see also Better Bus. Bureau of Metro. Houston, Inc. v. John Moore Servs., Inc., 441
S.W.3d 345, 356 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2013, pet. denied) (“To qualify as
defamatory, a statement should be derogatory, degrading, somewhat shocking, and
contain elements of disgrace. But a communication that is merely unflattering,
abusive, annoying, irksome, or embarrassing, or that only hurts the plaintiff’s
feelings, is not actionable.”).
15
C. Analysis
Nguyen’s defamation suit arises out of Hung’s alleged statements to Church
officers and deacons, made after Nguyen had both stepped down from leadership
roles and stopped attending the Church, that Nguyen had committed adultery.
Nguyen alleged that his decision not to seek further leadership roles was unrelated
to his wife’s concern that he had committed adultery, and he alleged that he informed
his wife and Hung in a January 2015 meeting that he had not been involved in an
extramarital affair. He continued attending the Church without incident until August
2015, when he alleged that he had an argument with Hung about unrelated matters,
including the proper form of address in Vietnamese for Hung’s wife and perceived
criticisms of Hung’s pastoral decisions. Nguyen alleged that, as a result of this
argument, he did not feel welcome at the Church, and he stopped attending services.
Nguyen alleged that, several weeks later, in September 2015, one of the
Church elders questioned Hung about Nguyen’s absence, and Hung responded that
Nguyen was no longer a deacon and no longer attended services because he had
committed adultery with a fellow parishioner. According to Nguyen, this statement
by Hung was false. Nguyen alleged that Hung then informed other Vietnamese
pastors at a meeting that Nguyen was no longer a member or elder of the Church,
although he did not state a reason why, and Hung later informed the Church’s deacon
16
board that Nguyen had committed adultery and he had terminated Nguyen’s
membership in the Church.
Nguyen contacted the C&MA Vietnamese District leadership to resolve the
matter but declined the Church leadership’s invitation to meet with it. Months later,
Nguyen brought this suit for defamation against the Church and Hung. Nguyen
alleged that, because of Hung’s statements, his reputation had been damaged in the
Church and in the greater Vietnamese Christian community, which is extremely
close-knit.
In response to the Church’s petition for writ of mandamus seeking to vacate
the trial court’s order denying its plea to the jurisdiction, Nguyen argues that this
dispute does not fall within the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine because Hung’s
statements were not made as a matter of church discipline or church governance, nor
were they made for the purposes of conforming the congregation to the standard of
morals required of them by the Church. He argues that, instead, Hung’s statements
were “motivated by personal malice” towards Nguyen arising out of their August
2015 argument. Nguyen argues that, as a result, Hung’s statements are not entitled
to First Amendment protection under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine and, thus,
the trial court properly denied the Church’s plea to the jurisdiction. Nguyen
alternatively argues that mandamus relief is improper because there is a factual
17
dispute concerning whether Hung’s actions and statements were a matter of church
discipline or whether they were made due to Hung’s malice towards Nguyen.
1. Applicable Law
The United States Supreme Court has held that the Free Exercise Clause of
the First Amendment forbids civil courts from exercising jurisdiction over “a matter
which concerns theological controversy, church discipline, ecclesiastical
government, or the conformity of the members of the church to the standard of
morals required of them.” Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at 713–14; see also Thiagarajan,
430 S.W.3d at 594.
Several Texas courts, including the Texas Supreme Court, have addressed the
application of the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine to a plaintiff’s tort claims,
including claims for defamation. In Westbrook v. Penley, Penley, a former
parishioner, brought several tort claims against Westbrook, the pastor of her former
church, including claims for defamation and professional negligence. Penley
allegedly informed Westbrook in a marital counseling session that she had had an
extramarital affair and Westbrook then informed the church elders of this and
published a letter to the congregation concerning Penley’s actions and the
appropriate discipline of “encourage[ing] the congregation to ‘break fellowship’
with Penley in order to obtain her repentance and restoration to the church body.”
231 S.W.3d at 393–94. Upon Westbrook’s plea to the jurisdiction, the trial court
18
dismissed the case on the basis of the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine. Id. at 394.
The Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of all of Penley’s claims
except for the professional negligence claim, “which it held concerned Westbrook’s
role as Penley’s secular professional counselor and did not invoke First Amendment
concerns.” Id. The Texas Supreme Court then granted review to determine whether
the trial court had jurisdiction over the professional negligence claim. Id. Penley did
not contest the dismissal of her defamation claim in the supreme court.
Penley argued to the supreme court that her professional negligence claim did
not implicate the First Amendment because the courts could resolve the claim using
“neutral tort principles without resorting to or infringing upon religious doctrine,”
as it had permitted for the resolution of disputes over property. Id. at 399; see
Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at 710 (stating that First Amendment requires courts to
determine church property disputes, in that these may be decided “without resolving
underlying controversies over religious doctrine”). The supreme court disagreed that
free exercise concerns would not be implicated even if it were to expand the neutral-
principles doctrine. Westbrook, 231 S.W.3d at 399 The court stated:
A church’s decision to discipline members for conduct considered
outside of the church’s moral code is an inherently religious function
with which civil courts should not generally interfere. Courts have no
jurisdiction to “revise or question ordinary acts of church discipline”
and “cannot decide who ought to be members of the church, nor
whether the excommunicated have been justly or unjustly, regularly or
irregularly cut off from the body of the church.” This is because “the
judicial eye cannot penetrate the veil of the church for the forbidden
19
purpose of vindicating the alleged wrongs of excised members; when
they become members they did so upon the condition of continuing or
not as they and their churches might determine, and they thereby submit
to the ecclesiastical power and cannot now invoke the supervisory
power of the civil tribunals.”
Id. at 399–400 (quoting Watson v. Jones, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 679, 730, 731 (1871)).
The court recognized that Penley “pin[ned] Westbrook’s liability in this case,
at least in part, on his breach of a secular duty by disclosing Penley’s confidential
information to the church elders in the first instance,” but it then noted that “this
disclosure cannot be isolated from the church-disciplinary process in which it
occurred, nor can Westbrook’s free-exercise challenge be answered without
examining what effect the imposition of damages would have on the inherently
religious function of church discipline.” Id. The court held that subjecting
Westbrook to tort liability for instituting and participating in the church’s required
disciplinary process would have a “chilling effect” on a church’s ability to discipline
its members and would “deprive churches of their right to construe and administer
church laws.” Id. The court thus concluded that, although Penley’s claim for
professional negligence “can be defined by neutral principles without regard to
religion, the application of those principles to impose civil tort liability” would
interfere with the church’s ability to manage its internal affairs and utilize its
disciplinary process. Id. (emphasis in original).
20
The same reasoning applied by the supreme court in Westbrook to dismiss
Penley’s professional negligence claim has been applied by our sister courts under
circumstances similar to those in this case to hold that a trial court lacked jurisdiction
over a plaintiff’s defamation claim.
In Jennison v. Prasifka, the Dallas Court of Appeals held that the trial court
properly dismissed the tort claims, including a defamation claim, brought by the
plaintiff—an Episcopal priest who also served as a stockbroker and who was
released from his role as a priest after a parishioner complained to the local diocese
about his actions taken with her brokerage account—because the “only defamatory
statements allegedly made by [the parishioner-defendant] were made to the church
itself in connection with the church’s disciplinary process,” and the priest’s claims
were “inextricably intertwined with the church’s investigation of his performance as
a priest and the discipline imposed by the church for inadequate performance” and
therefore “relate[d] to internal matters of church governance and discipline.” See 391
S.W.3d 660, 667–68 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2013, no pet.).
In In re Godwin, the San Antonio Court of Appeals held that the defamation
claim of the plaintiff—a former parishioner who sued the pastor and the church after
the pastor made a speech before the congregation “marking” the plaintiff for causing
division in the church after the plaintiff allegedly offered financial incentives to
church employees to speak out about financial improprieties committed by church
21
officials—related to the church’s decision to discipline the plaintiff “for conduct it
deemed contrary to both their Christian values and their interpretation of the Bible,”
which was “an inherently religious function with which civil courts should not
interfere.” 293 S.W.3d at 748; see also Williams, 26 S.W.3d at 56, 59–60 (pre-
Westbrook case in which Fourteenth Court of Appeals determined that plaintiff’s
defamation suit against church elders based on church’s warning to plaintiff—who
served as Sunday School teacher—that he stop teaching Biblical interpretations that
differed from those of Presbyterian Church was barred under ecclesiastical
abstention doctrine because plaintiff’s suit would require court “to review the
ecclesiastical judicial process and to determine the efficacy of the parties’ religious
beliefs and practices”).
Likewise, in a memorandum opinion in Becker v. Clardy, the Austin Court of
Appeals addressed whether a defamation claim brought by one teacher at a Catholic
school against another teacher should be barred under the ecclesiastical abstention
doctrine. See No. 03-10-00376-CV, 2011 WL 6756999, at *1 (Tex. App.—Austin
Dec. 22, 2011, pet. denied) (mem. op.). Becker, the plaintiff, alleged that the
defendant, Clardy, had made several allegedly defamatory statements about him to
her students, and that the principal of the school and the pastor of its affiliated church
conducted an investigation into the statements, which ultimately stopped, without
imposing discipline on Clardy, when Clardy resigned. Id.
22
In analyzing whether the trial court properly dismissed the claim under the
ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, the Austin Court first noted that “the alleged
statements and damage to reputation contained in Becker’s pleadings were
‘confined’ to the church community.” Id. at *3. The court also noted that the
evidence presented in connection with Clardy’s plea to the jurisdiction “showed that
the substance of Becker’s claims was that Clardy had violated the [local diocese’s]
Policy’s code of ethics and moral standards of the Catholic faith and Canon Law.”
Id. at *4. The court concluded that deciding whether to impose tort liability on
Clardy “for harm to Becker’s reputation within the community then necessarily
would require an analysis of internal church matters and doctrine.” Id. Specifically,
the truth or falsity of Clardy’s alleged statements and the alleged injury to Becker’s
reputation within the church “would require an analysis of the church’s moral
standards and church doctrine.” Id. The court stated, “Because Becker’s alleged
harm is limited to the harm to his reputation within the church community, it is
measured against the backdrop of the church’s religious morals and principles.” Id.
Accordingly, it affirmed the dismissal of Becker’s claim. Id. at *6. This is the
standard we apply in this case.
23
2. Application of the Law
The same reasoning held to require dismissal of the plaintiff’s case under the
ecclesiastical abstention doctrine in Westbrook, Jennison, In re Godwin, Becker, and
Williams requires dismissal of Nguyen’s defamation suit in this case.
We disagree with Nguyen’s contention that Hung’s statements are unrelated
to matters of church governance and discipline and do not involve the conformity of
the members of a church to the standard of morals required of them. See Westbrook,
231 S.W.3d at 399–400. Hung’s statements cannot be considered in isolation but
must instead be viewed in the context in which they occurred. See id. As in
Westbrook, the Manual for the C&MA contained a “Uniform Policy on Discipline,
Restoration, and Appeal,” which applies to all elected personnel of C&MA entities
and all members of C&MA churches. Referencing biblical text as authority, the
policy specifically outlines “the steps which should be taken to resolve conflict and
exercise redemptive and restorative discipline in the church.”
The record reflects that Hung’s statements were made to Church officials
charged with church governance as an integral part of a struggle over church
governance involving Hung and Nguyen. The struggle arose out of differences of
opinion as to how the Church should be governed and charges brought to Hung’s
attention by Nguyen’s wife regarding her husband’s alleged violation of moral
standards by engaging in an adulterous affair with a church member, a charge which
24
Nguyen denied even as he left the Church and refused an offer by the Church
deacons to meet with them to resolve the dispute.
Specifically, Nguyen’s suit for defamation against Hung was brought after:
• Nguyen—a founding member of the Church who had served in
various leadership roles, including as interim pastor—was
replaced by Hung as the new senior pastor;
• Nguyen, two years later, decided to “take a break” from the
ministry and not to seek re-appointment to leadership positions;
• Nguyen’s wife, Mai, subsequently approached Hung for marital
counseling in January 2015, telling him she had seen Nguyen
having lunch with two female church members and was
concerned about his fidelity;
• Hung met with Nguyen and Mai, and Nguyen defended himself
by stating that he had been asked by the other women to provide
marital and spiritual guidance to them and was not romantically
involved with them;
• All three prayed over the incident, and Hung suggested it should
not be mentioned again;
• Hung and Nguyen began having conflicts concerning other
issues within the Church in August 2015, including Hung’s
decision to take a month-long trip to Vietnam without informing
the Church leadership;
• Hung told Nguyen in a phone call that Nguyen’s and Mai’s
criticism of Hung’s way of pastoring to Church members had
caused emotional hurt and offended Hung and other Church
members;
• Nguyen subsequently “decided to take a break from attending the
Church”;
• Hung responded to a Church officer’s question several weeks
later as to why Nguyen no longer attend services at the Church
by saying that it was because Nguyen had committed adultery
with a woman in the church;
25
• Hung told Vietnamese pastors at a pastors’ meeting in Austin in
September 2015 that Nguyen was no longer a member of the
Church without stating why when Nguyen believed he was still
a member of the Church;
• Hung allegedly informed all of the deacons of the Church that
Nguyen had committed adultery with fellow Church members;
• Nguyen contacted members of the C&MA Vietnamese District
leadership in an attempt to solve the matter, but the district took
no action; and
• Nguyen declined invitations from the Church’s leadership to
meet and discuss the problems and informed the deacon board
that Hung had violated the law by slandering him and that he
“wanted the Church to be at peace and for things to settle down.”
Nguyen chose not to allow the deacons of the Church to resolve the issue and instead
sued Hung for damages for defamation.
Under these circumstances, all of the witnesses in this case would be Church
members or officers responding to allegations relating to the proper governance of
the Church, the standard of morals expected of Church leadership, the basis for
Nguyen’s wife’s allegations to Hung that her husband had committed adultery, and
the truth of Hung’s explanation for why Nguyen left the Church. This is precisely
the type of situation covered by the disciplinary policy set out in the C&MA Manual.
Ignoring the Manual, this suit would leave it to the state district court to decide
whether Nguyen left the Church voluntarily, as he states, or was asked to resign his
leadership positions and to leave as a matter of church discipline to resolve conflicts
within the Church, conflicts that Nguyen refused to have resolved by the church
26
elders and deacons. And it would require the district court to inquire into whether
Hung was properly following Church disciplinary procedure when he made the
statements concerning Nguyen to the Church deacons.
It is hard to see by what criterion the matters Nguyen would have the state
courts resolve are not consigned by the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine to
ecclesiastical bodies rather than to the secular courts. See Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at
718–20 (upholding exclusive church jurisdiction over defrocking of bishop and
finding state court’s “detailed review” of evidence impermissible under First and
Fourteenth Amendments and compounded by state court’s errors in evaluating
evidence, delving into church constitutional provisions, and sanctioning
circumvention of tribunals set up to resolve internal church disputes); Westbrook,
231 S.W.3d at 399–400 (holding that free exercise concerns required dismissal of
suit for professional negligence that had given rise to disciplinary process covered
by church policy); Mouton v. Christian Faith Missionary Baptist Church, 498
S.W.3d 143, 150–51 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2016, no pet.) (holding that
claims were “inextricably intertwined” with selection of church’s new pastor and
church’s expulsion of members, two “inherently ecclesiastical” issues, and thus
granting plea to jurisdiction was proper); Jennison, 391 S.W.3d at 667–68 (holding
that allegedly defamatory statements were made “to the church itself in connection
with the church’s disciplinary process” relating to performance of priest); In re
27
Godwin, 293 S.W.3d at 748–49 (holding that defamation claim was barred under
ecclesiastical abstention doctrine because claim related to church’s decision to
discipline former member for conduct contrary to values and Biblical interpretation).
We conclude that Hung’s allegedly defamatory statements are likewise
“inextricably intertwined” with matters relating to an internal struggle between a
current and former leader of the Church over Church governance, the standard of
morals required of leaders of the Church, and the reason for Nguyen’s leaving or
being expelled from the Church.
Nor do we agree with Nguyen and with the dissent that there is a factual
dispute over whether Hung’s actions and statements were a matter of church
discipline or whether they were due to Hung’s malice, taking them out of the
category of a legal determination and requiring trial. Even if there is a dispute over
Hung’s motivation in making the statements—either as part of a disciplinary
procedure due to the alleged adultery or merely out of vindictiveness towards
Nguyen, who had criticized Hung’s pastoring decisions—these statements were
made in the context of expelling a member and former leader of the Church, or,
alternatively, the Church member’s voluntarily quitting his leadership positions and
quitting the Church—and then refusing to meet with Church leadership to resolve
the dispute—either version of which is inherently an ecclesiastical concern as a
matter of law. See Mouton, 498 S.W.3d at 151 (“[D]iscipline of church members,
28
including expulsion, is an ‘inherently religious function with which civil courts
should not generally interfere.’”).
Furthermore, although Nguyen contends that his reputation in the Church and
in the Vietnamese Christian community was damaged by Hung’s statements, there
is no allegation that Hung’s statements were made outside the context of explaining
Nguyen’s absence from the Church in response to a question from a Church elder
and in Hung’s explanation to the Church’s deacon board on why Nguyen was no
longer a member or elder of the Church. Nguyen’s complaint that his reputation was
harmed is clearly a harm alleged to have occurred within the Church community.
See Becker, 2011 WL 6756999, at *4 (“Because Becker’s alleged harm is limited to
the harm to his reputation within the church community, it is measured against the
backdrop of the church’s religious morals and principles.”). Nor is it evident what
damages Nguyen might have suffered other than with respect to his affiliation with
the Church.
Additionally, to the extent that Nguyen complains that, by waiting eight
months after learning of the adultery allegations before making any statements to the
Church elders and deacons, Hung failed to comply with the Church’s prescribed
procedures for handling the discipline of members, the question of whether the
Church properly followed its disciplinary procedures is not a matter than can be
adjudicated by the secular courts. See Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at 718–19 (holding that
29
state court erred by addressing defrocked bishop’s claims that church’s actions
contravened church procedures and by addressing bishop’s failure to participate in
disciplinary proceedings); Singh v. Sandhar, 495 S.W.3d 482, 490, 492 (Tex.
App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2016, no pet.) (noting that civil courts cannot entertain
claims that ecclesiastical procedures were arbitrary and that temple’s alleged failure
to follow its bylaws “on a matter of internal governance involves ecclesiastical
concerns”); Williams, 26 S.W.3d at 59 (stating that civil courts are prohibited “from
inquiring into any phase of ecclesiastical decision making—its merits as well as
procedure”).
Finally, Nguyen cites In re Godwin for the proposition there are limits to what
religious leaders can say without running afoul of defamation laws and that “an
accusation of inappropriate sexual behavior would likely not be protected.” While
Nguyen is correct that the San Antonio Court of Appeals stated in In re Godwin that
“there are indeed limits to what can be said by church officials from the pulpit,” to
the extent Nguyen argues that statements concerning inappropriate sexual behavior
can never be protected under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, Nguyen both
ignores the controlling law recited above and reads In re Godwin too broadly. See
293 S.W.3d at 749. In re Godwin concerned a disgruntled former church member
who made repeated comments and accusations that the church’s leadership was
engaged in financial misconduct, and the member’s conduct included making offers
30
of financial assistance to church employees who spoke out against the church and
then lost their positions as a result. Id. at 745–46. The church’s senior pastor, on
advice from the board of elders, read a statement to the congregation describing the
church member’s behavior, accusing the member of bribery, and “marking” the
member as one causing division within the church. Id. at 746. At oral argument
before the San Antonio Court of Appeals, the church’s counsel took the position that
the church officials would be protected under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine
“even if they had stated [the member] were a child molester.” Id. at 749. The San
Antonio Court then stated that, under the facts of the particular case, “an accusation
of inappropriate sexual behavior would likely not be protected.” Id.
We do not read the court’s opinion in In re Godwin as making a blanket
statement that allegations of “inappropriate sexual behavior” made by church
officials can never be protected under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine. Instead,
we read the opinion as stating that, under the facts of that case, which involved
allegations of financial impropriety, allegations that the member engaged in
inappropriate sexual behavior would likely be beyond the scope of the doctrine’s
protection. See also Patton, 212 S.W.3d at 554–55 & n.13 (noting, in defamation
case arising out of decision to terminate employment of youth minister, that absent
“unusual or egregious circumstances” surrounding statements, defamation cases
generally fall within ecclesiastical abstention doctrine).
31
Nguyen also argues that this case is analogous to the Fifth Circuit’s decision
in Sanders v. Casa View Baptist Church, in which the court held that 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.” 134 F.3d 331, 335–36 (5th Cir. 1998).
Sanders involved a pastor who conducted marital counseling sessions with some of
his parishioners. Id. at 334. Although the pastor did provide marital counseling to
the two plaintiffs, one of whom was an administrative secretary at the church and
the other of whom was eventually hired as a receptionist at the church, he also
entered into a sexual relationship with both plaintiffs. Id. After the plaintiffs ended
their counseling relationship with the pastor, he began “to criticize their work
performance and discourage their hopes of promotions,” and he also “engaged in
behavior and conversation of a sexual nature that was unwelcome at the time.” Id.
The Fifth Circuit disagreed with the pastor’s claims that he was entitled to
judgment as a matter of law because he occasionally discussed scripture with the
plaintiffs during their counseling sessions and therefore the sessions were not purely
secular, they were “inherently ecclesiastical” and because the plaintiff’s claims were
“in essence noncognizable claims for ‘clergy malpractice.’” Id. at 335. The Fifth
Circuit held that for the pastor to “invoke the protection of the First Amendment for
conduct taking place within his counseling relationships with the plaintiffs,” he was
32
required to “assert that the specific conduct allegedly constituting a breach of his
professional and fiduciary duties was rooted in religious belief.” Id. at 337–38. The
court then noted “the obvious truth that the activities complained of by the
plaintiffs”—intentional sexual misconduct with the plaintiffs—“were not part of his
religious beliefs and practices.” Id. at 338. The Fifth Circuit thus held that the pastor
was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the basis that the plaintiffs’ claims
were barred by the First Amendment and the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine. Id.
In Westbrook, however, the Texas Supreme Court distinguished Sanders,
noting that Sanders “involved an intentional tort that formed no part of the pastor’s
or his church’s religious beliefs or practices.” See 231 S.W.3d at 403. We likewise
find Sanders—which involved intentional torts committed in the context of the
provision of professional counseling services and did not involve matters of church
discipline and governance—distinguishable from this case. This is not a case of
professional malpractice but a case of whether Nguyen was disciplined by Hung for
alleged sexual misconduct and accordingly whether Hung told the truth to Church
leadership when he said that Nguyen left the Church for that reason and, if not,
whether his statement was defamatory, and whether the matter should have been
handled by Church authorities under principles regarding the conformity of all
concerned to the standards of morals established by the Church. See Milivojevich,
426 U.S. at 713–14 (holding that “the civil courts exercise no jurisdiction . . . in a
33
matter which concerns . . . the conformity of the members of the church to the
standard of morals required of them”); Thiagarajan, 430 S.W.3d at 594 (same).
We conclude that Nguyen’s defamation claim against Hung and the Church
necessarily involves ecclesiastical matters that should be resolved within the church
itself rather than the civil courts. We hold, therefore, that the ecclesiastical abstention
doctrine applies to this claim and that the trial court erred by denying the Church’s
plea to the jurisdiction.
Because we hold that the trial court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over this
case, the Church need not demonstrate that it lacks an adequate remedy by appeal.
See In re St. Thomas High Sch., 495 S.W.3d at 514; In re Godwin, 293 S.W.3d at
747.
We sustain the Church’s sole issue.
34
Conclusion
We conditionally grant the Church’s petition for writ of mandamus and direct
the trial court to vacate its order denying the Church’s plea to the jurisdiction. The
writ will only issue if the trial court fails to comply. Further, we lift the stay of trial
court proceedings entered by this Court on August 9, 2018.
Evelyn V. Keyes
Justice
Panel consists of Justices Keyes, Higley, and Landau.
Justice Landau, dissenting.
35