Bill Exempting Church Groups From Punitive Damages Killed

A hotly debated bill to exempt religious organizations from punitive damages in lawsuits has been killed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The measure, proposed by Sen. John Doolittle (R-Citrus Heights), went down to a 4-7 defeat after an hourlong debate before a capacity audience at a Capitol hearing room. The vote went along largely partisan lines: Seven Democrats voted against it and three Republicans and one Democrat favored it.

A similar fate may await a bill in the Assembly, proposed by Assemblyman Alister McAlister (D-San Jose), that would exempt from malpractice suits clergy and others performing their usual religious duties. The Rev. Glen A. Holman, the Sacramento representative for ecumenical councils in the state, said the votes do not seem to be present for McAlister’s bill.

“Both bills are probably dead for this session of the Legislature,” said Holman, whose California Church Council Office for State Affairs backed both proposals, as have evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic representatives.

In arguing for his Senate bill, Doolittle said that the threat of big-figure lawsuits has a “chilling effect” on churches, and that excessive damage settlements and several liability laws could drive some of them out of existence. Doolittle also noted that municipal governments and labor unions are exempt from punitive damages.

But Sens. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) and Barry Keene (D-Benicia) said the bill did not give a definition of “religious organization,” and asked if the measure would apply to groups such as the Unification Church and Hare Krishna.

They also noted there was little evidence that established churches had been singled out for major lawsuits.

Last May, a Glendale Superior Court judge dismissed the nation’s first clergy malpractice suit, against Grace Community Church of Sun Valley. A total of $1 million was sought in the suicide death of a young man who had been counseled at the church, but the judge argued that judicial attempts to set counseling standards would be a violation of church-state separation.

“It all this necessary?” Keene asked. “We have auto damage suits, and people don’t stay off the roads.”