## Facts

- A minor, Michael Gibson, alleged that Father Michael Brewer, a Catholic priest, invited him to stay overnight at the rectory and sexually touched him in an offensive and unwelcome manner.
- Michael’s parents reported the incident to diocesan officials and alleged the Diocese minimized the report and later characterized it as an “innocent” act, urging the family to “forgive and forget.”
- The petition alleged the Diocese knew of similar misconduct involving Brewer and other boys but continued to permit him access to minors until he was eventually removed.
- The Gibsons sued Brewer and the Diocese asserting multiple tort theories, including battery, negligent hiring/retention, negligent supervision, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, agency-based liability, and independent negligence of the Diocese.
- The case was decided at the pleading stage on motions to dismiss; the court accepted the petition’s allegations as true for purposes of the motions.

## Issues

1. Whether the First Amendment bars civil adjudication of claims against a diocese for negligent hiring/ordination/retention, negligent supervision, breach of fiduciary duty, and related theories because they would require inquiry into ecclesiastical doctrine, polity, or internal governance.
2. Whether a claim framed as an intentional failure to supervise a priest, based on alleged knowledge of prior sexual misconduct and alleged knowing inaction, can be adjudicated using neutral principles of tort law.
3. Whether appellate jurisdiction existed over claims involving the priest when some claims against him remained pending, notwithstanding a trial-court certification of finality under Missouri Rule 74.01(b).

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed dismissal of most claims against the Diocese that depended on negligence-based review of clergy hiring, retention, training, assignment, or supervision, holding such claims would cause excessive entanglement with religion.
- The court reversed dismissal of a claim alleging the Diocese intentionally failed to supervise despite knowledge of prior misconduct, concluding it could be tried using neutral tort principles without deciding religious questions.
- The court dismissed all appeals by or against Brewer for lack of appellate jurisdiction because the judgment did not dispose of all claims against him and Rule 74.01(b) did not create an appealable judicial unit.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the rulings, including litigation of the surviving intentional-supervision theory against the Diocese.

## Legal Principles

- Civil courts may not decide disputes requiring evaluation of religious doctrine, polity, or internal church governance; claims that require such evaluation are nonjusticiable under the First Amendment.
- Negligent hiring/ordination/retention and negligent supervision claims against a religious body are barred when liability would require a court to assess the reasonableness of ecclesiastical decisions about selecting, training, assigning, or disciplining clergy.
- Neutral principles of law permit adjudication of claims that can be resolved through secular factual inquiries and ordinary tort elements without resolving ecclesiastical questions.
- A claim alleging intentional failure to supervise may proceed where it turns on secular questions of knowledge, intentional inaction, causation, and injury, rather than religious standards for governance.
- Missouri appellate jurisdiction requires a final judgment disposing of an entire claim as a judicial unit; certification under Rule 74.01(b) cannot create finality when claims remain pending against a party.

## Conclusion

The court held that most negligence-based claims against the Diocese were barred because adjudicating them would require impermissible inquiry into internal church governance, but it allowed an intentional failure-to-supervise claim to proceed under neutral tort principles; it dismissed appeals involving the priest for lack of a final, appealable judgment.


Gibson v. Brewer, 952 S.W.2d 239 (Mo. 1997)