## Facts

- Kenneth Nally, 24, was a long-time member of Grace Community Church and participated in its pastoral counseling.
- Nally suffered from depression and had recently overdosed on antidepressants, resulting in hospitalization.
- A hospital psychiatrist recommended voluntary commitment; Nally refused, and his parents were reluctant about formal commitment.
- The psychiatrist warned Nally’s father that repeat suicide attempts are common among suicidal patients.
- Church pastors met with Nally for spiritual counseling; before his death, pastors referred him to medical doctors and one referred him to a psychiatrist.
- Nally died by suicide on April 1, 1979, by shooting himself with a shotgun.
- His parents brought a wrongful death action alleging negligent pastoral counseling, including failure to prevent suicide and allegedly discouraging appropriate secular mental-health treatment.

## Issues

1. Whether a church and its pastors owed a tort duty of due care to prevent a counselee’s suicide based on pastoral counseling.
2. Whether nontherapist counselors, including clergy, have a legal duty to refer potentially suicidal individuals to licensed mental-health professionals.
3. Whether imposing such duties would require courts to evaluate religious counseling in a manner barred by the First Amendment.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s nonsuit for the church and pastors.
- The Court declined to recognize a cause of action for “clergyman malpractice” premised on the content or adequacy of spiritual counseling.
- The Court rejected a broad rule imposing on “nontherapist counselors” a duty to refer suicidal counselees to psychiatrists or psychotherapists.
- The Court noted the record reflected that pastors had encouraged professional help and made medical and psychiatric referrals, undermining any claim of breach even under a referral-based theory.

## Legal Principles

- Duty in negligence is a question of law; foreseeability alone does not compel recognition of a new duty where countervailing policy considerations are substantial.
- Courts will not impose a malpractice-style standard on clergy for pastoral counseling where liability would depend on judging religious doctrine, pastoral methods, or the propriety of spiritual advice.
- Tarasoff-type duties are linked to licensed mental-health professionals and regulated therapeutic relationships; they are not automatically transferable to clergy or other nontherapist counselors.
- Policy concerns limiting duty included the risk of entangling courts in religious matters, inhibiting religious counseling, and difficulties of proving causation between pastoral counseling and suicide.

## Conclusion

The court held that California tort law does not impose on clergy a general duty to prevent a counselee’s suicide or a broad duty to refer for psychiatric treatment, and it refused to recognize clergy malpractice where adjudication would require judicial evaluation of religious counseling.


Nally v. Grace Cmty. Church of the Valley, 47 Cal. 3d 278 (Cal. 1988)