Developments in clergy malpractice: the case of Sanders v. Casa View Baptist Church

The courts have so far consistently refused to view misconduct by clergy counselors as constituting clergy malpractice. However, they have increasingly come to view it as a breach of fiduciary duty. More recently, they have also begun to differentiate between the secular and religious aspects of clergy counselors' work. The case discussed in this article (Sanders v. Casa View Baptist Church) provides an instructive example from the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, in 1998. The court upheld a district court finding, based on a review of trial testimony, that the defendant's counseling work as a whole (and not merely his sexual misconduct itself) was essentially secular in nature. Thus the plaintiff recovered punitive damages for both breach of fiduciary duty and marriage counseling malpractice.