Suit Blaming Suicide on Clergy Malpractice Killed

A church cannot be held liable for the suicide of a depressed man who was counseled by a clergyman, even if the counselor had reason to believe that the man would kill himself, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

The case was the first alleging “clergy malpractice” to reach California’s highest court.

The court unanimously threw out a suit by the parents of Kenneth Nally, 24, who shot himself to death in 1979 after several years of counseling at a fundamentalist church and one previous suicide attempt.

The suit was filed against Grace Community Church of the Valley in Sun Valley.

Groups representing more than 6,000 churches around the country had written to the court in support of the church’s position.

In a key part of today’s ruling, the court ruled 5 to 2 that a church counselor, or other non-professional counselor, has no legal duty to refer a patient to a psychiatrist or take other steps to prevent suicide.

“Neither the Legislature nor the courts have ever imposed a legal obligation on persons to take affirmative steps to prevent the suicide of one who is not under the care of a physician in a hospital,” said the opinion by Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas.

Imposing such duties on pastoral counselors would also be “impractical, and quite possibly unconstitutional,” because of the involvement of differing religious doctrines, Lucas said.

Nally was a former honor student and high school baseball star.

His family sued the ministers and the church in 1979 contending that four churchmen failed to warn them when Nally was contemplating a second suicide attempt while still hospitalized for a failed suicide attempt. He died three weeks later of a self-inflicted shotgun wound.

The decision overturned two earlier court of appeal rulings in the case that found that it should go to trial because a reasonable juror could find the counselors acted “recklessly” and in a way to encourage the suicide.

Grace Community Church, at the time of Nally’s death, was a 10,000-member Protestant group with more than 30 pastoral counselors who provided regular drop-in services purporting to handle serious psychological ills, including severe depression and suicidal tendencies, according to the court opinion.

Nally’s family maintained that the church did not properly train its counselors and that those talking with their son discouraged him from seeking further medical help.