What's New in Colorado PELA?

NEW EEOC GUIDANCE ON DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CAREGIVERS

EEOC has just issued some new guidance on discrimination against caregivers. Check it out on EEOC's website, www.eeoc.gov.

CASE SUMMARY

In Seefried v. Hummel. No. 04CA0960 (Colo.App. 8/4/05), Richard Seefried and James Seefried were senior and associate pastors at Fort Collins Bible Church. James Seefried also owned plaintiff company, CDS, which employed a number of the defendants who were also church members. Following the termination of defendants’ employment at CDS, Richard Seefried was terminated from the church. The complaint alleged that the church and its board unlawfully discharged Richard based on this “secular non-church issue.” At issue on appeal was the second claim for relief that
Richard had been employed with the church subject to an “express indefinite contract” that contained “reciprocal duties of good faith and fair dealing.”

Plaintiffs claimed that the church’s public meeting regarding Richard as pastor rendered defendants liable for “slander, libel, the intentional interference with business relationships, and outrageous conduct.”

Defendants did not dispute that the meeting was held, the statements were made, or that Richard was terminated as a result of the meeting. The trial court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The court of appeals agrees that the statements were issued within the constitutionally protected context of the First
Amendment because they occurred during a church meeting concerning the “investigation, discipline and discharge of the pastors.” The Court follows the holding in Van Odol v. Vogt, 908 P.2d 1122 (Colo. 1996), that the decision to hire or discharge a minister is purely ecclesiastical, inextricable from religious doctrine and an expression of the beliefs of the church and the embodiment of the religion. The appeal is dismissed in part and the judgment is affirmed.

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