Catholic Diocese Jackson v. De Lange

341 So.3d 887

CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF JACKSON, Mississippi, and Joseph R. Kopacz, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson

v.Arie Mattheus DE LANGE

NO. 2021-IA-00159-SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 16, 2022

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANTS: R. RICHARD CIRILLI, JR., STEPHEN J. CARMODY, Jackson

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: H. WESLEY WILLIAMS, III

EN BANC.

CHAMBERLIN, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

¶1. This matter comes before the Court as an interlocutory appeal of the order of the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County denying a motion filed by the Catholic Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi to dismiss claims stemming from the termination of the employment of Arie Mattheus de Lange. The Diocese argued that, pursuant to the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine found in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, this case must be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The circuit court disagreed and determined that "the resolution of these claims will not require immersion into the faith, discipline and doctrine of the Catholic Church or the Code of Canon Law." After careful review, we conclude that the circuit court erred and that the First Amendment demands dismissal. Therefore, we reverse and render the order of the circuit court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2. On January 1, 2011, Bishop Joseph N. Latino of the Diocese appointed de Lange finance officer. The terms of de Lange's employment were established by the Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, Canon 494 outlines the finance officer's duties as follows:

§ 1. In every diocese, after having heard the college of consultors and the Finance council, the bishop is to appoint a Finance officer who is truly expert in Financial affairs and absolutely distinguished for honesty.

§ 2. The Finance officer is to be appointed for a Five year term but can be appointed for other Five year terms at the end of this period. The finance officer is not to be removed while in this function except for a grave cause to be assessed by the bishop after he has heard the college of consultors and the Finance council.

§ 3. It is for the Finance officer to administer the goods of the diocese under the authority of the bishop in accord with the budget determined by the Finance council and, from the income of the diocese, to meet expenses which the bishop or others designated by him have legitimately authorized.

§ 4. At the end of the year, the Finance officer must render an account of receipts and expenditures to the Finance council.

¶3. On February 6, 2014, Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz replaced Bishop Latino as head of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson. On October 4, 2018, Bishop Kopacz terminated de Lange and sent him a letter that outlined specific reasons for doing so. The letter stated that de Lange's termination was due to:

(1) the weakened financial administrative condition of the diocese; (2) the internal problems reflected in last year's audit report and anticipated in this year's report; (3) the unexpected large deficit this fiscal year; and (4) the lack of leadership, communication and collaboration between the office of Finance and Temporal Affairs with diocesan leadership, including but not limited to the Bishop and the Diocesan Finance Council.

In addition to a termination letter, Bishop Kopacz sent a "Separation, Severance and Release Agreement" that offered de Lange $75,000 in exchange for his relenquishing all claims against the Diocese.

¶4. De Lange responded by hand delivering a letter to Bishop Kopacz on October 9, 2018, that appealed his termination, notified Bishop Kopacz of de Lange's appointment of Reverend Bittner as his canon lawyer and requested the revocation of the termination. If Bishop Kopacz refused to reinstate de Lange, then de Lange, alternatively, requested an increased compensation package, a statement that de Lange resigned instead of being terminated and proof that de Lange's performance in his role as finance officer was in any way unsatisfactory.

¶5. On October 9, 2018, the Diocesan Consultors met with Bishop Kopacz to discuss de Lange's termination. Due to issues with the 2015-16 and 2016-17 audits and failure to "make any progress in remedying those areas that have been noted by others as areas of concern for several years[,]" the Diocesan Consultors approved Bishop Kopacz's decision to terminate de Lange.¹

¶6. On October 12, 2018, de Lange's termination and the appointment of his replacement was announced to all local parishes in the diocese by a report in the Mississippi Catholic newspaper.

¶7. On October 19, 2018, Bishop Kopacz sent Reverend Bittner, de Lange's canon lawyer, additional materials regarding de Lange's response letter to his termination. Bishop Kopacz's letter included a "Summary of Reasoning" that gave four additional grounds for termination. The first additional ground involved the financial and administrative mismanagement exhibited by the discovery of a $900,000 deficit in the diocesan budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year. The second additional ground regarded a lack of organization and collaboration over the previous few years exhibited by a failure to provide comprehensive reports on the budget and statements from budget committee members regarding a discomfort as to the validity and reliability of the budget. The third additional ground involved an instance when Father Kevin Slattery, the Vicar General, "confronted Mr. de Lange about his lack of collaboration and communication that was having a negative impact on the proper exercise of leadership among the Department Heads in the diocesan offices[,]" but noted that de Lange did very little to change his behavior. The fourth additional ground involved two instances of de Lange's mismanagement and disorganization. The first instance concerned the way in which de Lange alerted parish leadership of a significant unexpected change of assessment of diocesan expenses which consequently "damaged the trust between parish and chancery leadership." The second instance involved de Lange's transferring $100,000 from Bishop William Houck's estate to "shore up the budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year" without permission from Bishop Kopacz.

¶8. On November 5, 2018, Reverend Bittner, on behalf of de Lange, submitted a Recourse, or an appeal under the Code of Canon Law, to the Congregation for the Clergy in Vatican City. The Recourse addressed each of the four additional grounds for termination given to Reverend Bittner in the October 19, 2018 letter. The Recourse claimed the reasons for termination were not "grave causes" as required by the Code of Canon Law and were defamatory. Additionally, the Recourse stated that de Lange "believes that the Bishop's motives in terminating him, when he did, were a result of Mr. de Lange voting against the 2018-19 budget of Catholic Charities, Inc., which is run by Bishop Kopacz." Reverend Bittner set forth the difficult history between de Lange, as a member of the board of directors for the Catholic Charities, Inc., and Bishop Kopacz, as the interim director. De Lange voted against the proposal to have Bishop Kopacz serve as the interim director of the Catholic Charities, Inc., when he assumed the position in March 2016. Additionally, the day before de Lange was terminated, he voted against the budget of the Catholic Charities, Inc. De Lange, in the Recourse, claimed to have explained to the board members that Catholic Charities, Inc., had outstanding loans with the Diocese, totaling more than $790,000, and that the proposed budget could not be sustained because they were " ‘burning’ cash through financial cash sweeps daily from the Diocese to support its own budget."

¶9. On December 13, 2019, Bishop Kopacz entered a decree to rescind de Lange's termination based on the advice of the Congregation for the Clergy. De Lange was placed on administrative leave without pay until the Bishop could consult with the "finance council and the college of consultors" in accordance with the Code of Canon Law and reach a final decision on his employment. The Bishop informed de Lange that de Lange would be considered to have been in continuous employment without any interruption from the previous termination.

¶10. On May 20, 2019, Bishop Kopacz sent de Lange a letter ending his employment with the Diocese, and on October 2, 2019, de Lange filed this action in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County. In his complaint, de Lange claimed wrongful termination, defamation and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Additionally, de Lange stated in his complaint that "[a]fter applying Mississippi's choice of law rule, Section 494 of the Code of Canon Law should be applied to all issues concerning de Lange's employment with the Diocese." He further claimed that he had an implied employment contract with the Diocese, during which he "was not an employee at will under Section 494 of the Code of Canon Law as he could only be discharged for a grave reason."²

¶11. The Diocese and Bishop Kopacz filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under article III, section 18, of the Mississippi Constitution and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Diocese and Bishop Kopacz also filed a memorandum in support of their motion to dismiss, arguing that due to the separation of church and state, the circuit court is precluded from deciding an employment action that "involves the ecclesiastical matters that pertain to The Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church."

¶12. On July 17, 2020, de Lange requested leave to amend his complaint. The circuit court held a hearing on the motion and granted de Lange's request to amend his complaint. At the hearing, the Diocese stipulated that de Lange was not an at-will employee. On July 20, 2020, de Lange filed the amended complaint in which he removed most of the references to the Code of Canon Law.³ Instead, de Lange argued that Bishop Kopacz...