Bellevue Baptist Church sexual abuse suit: parents of abused teen seek to be part of settlement
Bellevue Baptist Church was back in court Tuesday for an appeals case regarding a previous partial settlement for a teen sexual abuse suit. The appeal is to allow for the parents of the teen victim to be included in the settlement, as their settlement claim was previously dismissed by a trial court.
The parents of the teen, using pseudonyms John and Jane Doe, originally filed claims but the trial court denied them, saying that since they were not witnesses, they have no bystander negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Previously in court, Bellevue argued that unless parents witnessed the sexual assault of their child, there is no actionable claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress. This caused the court to dismiss the parents' claim to the settlement, but still allowed their minor child's case to move forward.
Gary Smith, an attorney representing the parents in the case, began his oral arguments with a recount of the claims made against a paid volunteer coordinator at the church who sexually abused their teen child in 2019.
Smith refuted the three policy arguments made on behalf of Bellevue Baptist Church, one being allowing parents to claim infliction of emotional distress for cases such as this would raise insurance premiums. Bellevue Baptist Church attorneys said that this would open the "floodgates" according to Smith, for similar claims.
"That would be true only if there was a flood of sexual assault of children in churches," Smith said. "And if there is such a flood, we should open the floodgates."
Another policy argument Smith refuted was regarding the "moral hazard" of monetizing claims of sexual abuse in favor of parents. Smith said that the claim that allowing parents to file claims such as these would not incentivize parents to allow their children to be sexually assaulted or abused, and added that to claim that is "ludicrous."
William Johnson, attorney for Bellevue Baptist Church, said that the trial court's motion to dismiss the parents from the case was appropriate because of the plaintiff's failure to present facts that would substantiate a claim for bystander emotional distress.
Johnson said that there are four elements to a bystander claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress, the most important element being witnessing the event of sexual abuse. He said the parents did not directly observe sexual misconduct.
"They were not in the physical proximity of the alleged misconduct, and they only learned about the abuse after the fact," Johnson said.
Johnson also argued that since there is no proof of the parents witnessing the sexual misconduct, the plaintiffs are "asking the court to rewrite the law on emotional distress."
"Knowledge that something bad happened is not the same as observing the incident or the immediate aftermath," Johnson said.
The Southern Baptist Convention has grappled with the issue of sex abuse for years, with the focus heightening after a 2019 investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News found about 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers who had faced allegations of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, with more than 700 victims.
Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at Brooke.Muckerman@commercialappeal.com and followed on X/Twitter @BrookeMuckerman.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: SBC sexual abuse: appeal heard on Memphis Bellevue Baptist settlement
