Key Point 8-24. A reference letter is a letter that evaluates the qualifications and suitability of a person for a particular position. Churches, like other employers, often use reference letters to screen new employees and volunteers. Churches often are asked to provide reference letters on current or former workers. The law generally provides employers with important protections when responding to a reference letter request. However, liability may still arise in some cases, such as if the employer acts with malice in drafting a reference letter.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a church does not have an affirmative duty to warn future employers that one of its ministers had molested several boys. Five adult males (the "plaintiffs") alleged that they were sexually abused by a priest from 1968 to 1973 when he was employed as a teacher by a parochial school in Kentucky.
The plaintiff's lawsuit described an ongoing pattern of sexual abuse of children by the priest over the years. The plaintiffs allege that prior to 1964, he had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct while at a Catholic seminary; that between 1964 and 1966, he abused more than two dozen children while a teacher at a Wisconsin parochial school; that he subsequently admitted to sexually abusing up to ten more children at another Wisconsin parochial school; and that the pattern of sexual abuse continued while he was a teacher at the parochial school in Kentucky. The plaintiffs sued the Wisconsin diocese (the "Diocese"), claiming that it "knew or should have known of the priest's propensity for sexually abusing children and, despite this knowledge, did not refer him to the police or take any other action to prevent him from continuing his pattern of sexually abusing children." The lawsuit further alleged that the failure of the diocese to refer the priest to the police or to take "other action to prevent a continuation of his pattern of sexually abusing children" amounted to negligence, and that the diocese's negligent conduct was a substantial factor in causing the priest's sexual abuse of and resulting injuries to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs specified that such negligence in failing to take other action specifically included a negligent failure to warn "unforeseeable third parties," including "other dioceses within the United States, the parochial school systems or the parents of unforeseeable victims" of the priest's propensity for sexual abuse.
The court noted that the plaintiffs' negligence claim "is premised on an alleged failure to warn unforeseeable third parties, including any potential future employers of the priest at dioceses and parochial school systems everywhere in the country, as well as parents of unforeseeable victims."
The Diocese insisted that the law does not "impose a duty on employers to seek out and disclose information to an employee's subsequent employers or the public at large concerning a former employee's history of misconduct or antisocial behavior," and that under the legal theory of negligent referral or duty to warn "unless an employer gives a favorable reference to a subsequent employer or third party about the former employee while withholding negative information, there is no breach of duty established by the employer's failure to seek out subsequent employers and alert them to prior negative history of the former employee."
The supreme court concluded:
The Diocese's mere knowledge of the priest's past sexual abuse, or a presumed knowledge of a continued sexual propensity for abuse, is not enough to establish negligence. Reasonable and ordinary care does not require the Diocese to notify all potential subsequent employers within dioceses and parochial school systems across the country, along with all parents of future unforeseeable victims. Requiring such notification under these circumstances would create a vast obligation dramatically exceeding any approach to failure to warn recognized either in this state or in other jurisdictions ….
More importantly, in this case, the specific victims were unforeseeable. Foreseeability of specific victims becomes relevant when an affirmative obligation is argued, such as the obligation to warn. Moreover, the Diocese did not assume a special role in regard to the injured parties ….
The plaintiffs in this case had virtually no relationship with the Diocese. There are significant gaps temporally and geographically, with the plaintiffs separated from the Diocese by several state lines and their abuse separated from the priest's employment with the Diocese by a number of years, and the complaint never indicated that their paths crossed at all prior to the plaintiffs filing this action. Thus, the relationship between the parties in this case is quite attenuated.
There is no state in which employers are recognized as being negligent for failing to seek out, find, and warn future employers of sexually dangerous former employees. Even those states that have recognized a negligent referral doctrine do not impose liability when a referral letter is sent by a past employer to a future employer of such an employee unless actual misrepresentations are made in such a letter. See Randi W., 929 P.2d at 584 [fully addressed in section 8-24 of Richard Hammar's Pastor, Church & Law (4th ed. 2008)].
Thus, we conclude that the plaintiffs' complaint fails to allege negligence sufficiently to survive a motion to dismiss. Although the plaintiffs allege that the Diocese knew that the priest had a propensity for sexual abuse, what is more pertinent is what the plaintiffs did not allege. They did not allege that the Diocese knew that he was in Kentucky, still teaching children, or working for the Archdiocese in Louisville. They did not allege any knowledge that the children at the [parochial school in Kentucky] were in any danger. They did not allege that the Archdiocese of Louisville asked the Diocese for a reference, that the Diocese made a reference recommending the priest, or that the Diocese had any communication whatsoever with the Archdiocese of Louisville regarding the priest.
The plaintiffs also fail to provide legal authority supporting their arguments. They argue that the duty of ordinary care in this case encompasses a specific obligation to warn all parochial schools and dioceses in this country, as well as future parents of unforeseeable victims, but have cited no cases in which the failure to warn third parties has been described in such sweeping terms ….
We decline to rule that under the general duty of ordinary care recognized in Wisconsin, an employer may be found negligent for failing to warn unforeseen third parties of a dangerous former employee. Such a ruling would extend an employer's obligation to warn indefinitely into the future to a sweeping category of persons, thereby requiring employers to warn nearly all potential future employers or victims, as the plaintiffs in this case argue. … A decision to the contrary would create precedent suggesting that employers have an obligation to search out and disclose to all potential subsequent employers, which could include in an employment context every school in the country or beyond, all matters concerning an ex-employee's history …. The primary public policy problem with recognizing the claim as presented by the plaintiffs is that there is no sensible stopping point to recognizing negligence claims for such an open-ended and ill-defined sweeping claim. Recognizing the plaintiffs' claim against the Diocese in this case could result in requiring all employers to warn all unforeseen potential future employers of any number of problems related to any number of past employees. It could further result in all parents who become aware that their child was sexually abused then facing potential liability for not warning every other parent who might also have children at risk of being in contact with the perpetrator.
Application. This case is significant because it addresses the fundamental question of a church's duty to affirmatively warn future employers and potential victims of a former employee's propensity to engage in sexual or other misconduct. The relevance of the case is augmented by the fact that (1) it was a ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court; (2) it was a unanimous ruling; and (3) it represents the most extended discussion of this issue in any case involving a religious organization.
Note that the court suggested that its ruling might not relieve churches from liability for providing positive, unqualified references on former employees who committed sexual or other misconduct, or for failing to warn other churches where it knows such former employees are working. But, there is no affirmative duty to track former employees in order to give notice to all future employers and potential victims of the risk they face. It should also be noted that churches may face civil liability on the basis of "interference with contract" for gratuitously warning future employers of a former employee's previous misconduct if a reference was not requested and results in the employee's dismissal. Hornback v. Archdiocese of Milwaukee, 752 N.W.2d 862 (Wis. 2008).
This Recent Development first appeared in Church Law & Tax Report, July/August 2009.
