United States: Montana Supreme Court rules church confidentiality doctrine excused elders from reporting a child-abuse disclosure

Proceedings

1. 2020-01-09 · jury verdict reversed on appeal; case later settled

   Twentieth Judicial District Court, Sanders County, Montana, USA (trial); Montana Supreme Court (appeal). A Sanders County jury awarded Alexis Nunez $4 million in compensatory and $31 million in punitive damages, finding the Thompson Falls congregation and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York negligent for not reporting a 2004 disclosure that a member (the victim's uncle) had himself been abused as a child, made to elder Don Herberger — a disclosure the elders linked to ongoing abuse of Nunez by her step-grandfather. On 9 January 2020 the Montana Supreme Court reversed, holding Montana's mandatory-reporting statute exempts confidential communications received under an established church confidentiality practice, so the elders were not obligated to report. The parties settled for an undisclosed amount on 31 August 2021 with prejudice.

Appellate history

1. 2020-01-09 · Montana Supreme Court

   Reversed the $35 million jury verdict; held the confidentiality doctrine exempted elders from the mandatory-reporting statute.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• doctrine requiring elders to keep disclosures made to a judicial committee confidential, invoked to withhold a report to civil authorities