American States Insurance v. Bailey

133 F.3d 363
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 5, 1998
Docket96-10779
StatusPublished
Cited by83 cases

This text of 133 F.3d 363 (American States Insurance v. Bailey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American States Insurance v. Bailey, 133 F.3d 363 (5th Cir. 1998).

Opinion

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:

This declaratory judgment suit was filed by three insurance carriers seeking a declaration that they have no duty to either defend or indemnify their insureds for claims that stem from allegations of sexual misconduct against the Reverend H. Barry Bailey. The district court granted summary judgment for the carriers. This appeal ensued. We find that the claims alleged against the carriers’ insureds are excluded from coverage by the policies at issue. Therefore, the carriers have no duty to defend or indemnify their insureds, and we affirm.

I.

In February 1995, seven women (the “All-baugh plaintiffs”) filed suit in Texas district court against the Reverend H. Barry Bailey alleging a variety of tort claims which all stemmed from alleged sexual improprieties by Bailey. Bailey was the pastor-in-charge of the First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth (“FUMC”).

In June 1995, Gail Cooke filed a separate suit in Texas district court against Bailey, FUMC, and four associate ministers of FUMC. 1 Her claims against Bailey were essentially the same as those of the Allbaugh plaintiffs. Her claims against FUMC and the four associate ministers were based on vicarious liability and the allegation that FUMC and the associate ministers knew or should have known of Bailey’s conduct and should have attempted to stop or warn Cooke of his behavior. In August 1995, Dorayne Levin intervened in Cooke’s state court suit.

In May 1995, American States Insurance Co. (“American States”) filed this declaratory judgment action in federal court under diversity jurisdiction. In July 1995, North River Insurance Co. and United States Fire Insurance Co. (collectively “Crum & Forster”) intervened in American States’s declaratory judgment action. Western World Insurance Co. (“Western World”) also intervened in July 1995. The Allbaugh plaintiffs, Cooke, Levin, FUMC, and the four associate ministers were all eventually joined as defendants in this federal suit. In May 1996, the district court granted the insurance carriers’ motions for summary judgment, finding that they had a duty neither to defend nor to indemnify their insureds (Bailey, FUMC, and the four associate ministers) against the claims of the Allbaugh plaintiffs, Cooke, and Levin.

The Allbaugh plaintiffs, Cooke, Levin, FUMC, and the four associate ministers appealed the district court’s grant of summary judgment. Before this court heard the case at oral argument, the Allbaugh plaintiffs, Cooke, and Levin settled with Bailey. Therefore, the only issues remaining before this court are Crum & Forster’s and Western World’s duty to defend or indemnify FUMC and the four associate ministers against the claims of Cooke and Levin. 2 Also *367 before the court is the issue of whether the district court erred in finding that the All-baugh plaintiffs, Cooke, and Levin are hable for all three insurance carriers’ court costs.

II.

Cooke’s and Levin’s specific claims against FUMC and the four associate ministers are as follows:

1. intentional infliction of emotional and mental distress
2. breach of fiduciary duty, for which fiduciary duty is defined alternatively as the duty to discipline a pastor, the duty of trust and confidence between a parishioner and a pastor, or the duty to report Bailey’s conduct to church authorities
3. negligent credentialing of Bailey
4. negligent hiring of Bailey
5. negligent assignment of pastoral charges to Bailey
6. negligent supervision of Bailey
7. negligent failure to warn others of known or knowable harassing and abusive behavior by Bailey
8. negligent dereliction of duties as ordained ministers and agents, servants, and employees of the United Methodist Church
9. negligent counseling

Although Cooke and Levin have settled with Bailey, their claims against him remain relevant to determining coverage as to FUMC and the four associate ministers. Cooke’s and Levin’s specific claims against Bailey are as follows:

1. battery
2. assault
3. false imprisonment
4. invasion of privacy
5. intentional infliction of emotional and mental distress
6. breach of fiduciary duty
7. negligence
8. negligent counseling
9. failure to warn plaintiffs of his sexual deviancy
10. defamation (Cooke only)

The alleged facts underlying Cooke’s and Levin’s claims against Bailey are also relevant to determining coverage. In general, Cooke and Levin contend that “[b]etween 1976 and 1994 the Reverend Barry Bailey continued to abuse his position as Pastor-in-Charge of the First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth, Inc., to force or induce women to engage with him in lewd, lascivious, obscene, and immoral sexual conduct, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment.” Cooke describes the specific facts underlying her claims as follows:

3.15. During the 1976 to 1994 time-frame, Reverend Bailey initiated conversations with her, in person and by telephone, which were inappropriate, lewd, and obscene. During these conversations, Reverend Bailey persisted in inappropriate sexual discussions involving sexual affairs, graphic sexual acts ..., graphic sexual language, and personally insulting sexual language.
3.16. Reverend Bailey also exposed [himself] to Ms. Cooke on several occasions at the Church and even at the parsonage with his own wife in the next room.
3.17. Reverend Bailey also accosted Ms. Cooke at the Church on several occasions. In those encounters, Reverend Bailey inappropriately grabbed private areas of Ms. Cooke’s body and on several occasions physically blocked her exit from offices or rooms on the Church property, forcing himself and his comments upon her.
3.19. Gail Cooke recently became aware of information which leads her to believe, and she does allege, that Reverend Bailey has made slanderous and defamatory statements about her to third persons, such statements being actionable under *368 the legal theories of slander and defamation, for which she seeks recovery of damages herein.

Plaintiffs Third Amended Petition at 16-18. Levin describes the specific facts underlying her claims as follows:

3.20. At approximately 11 a.m. on September 1,1993, Intervenor [Levin] presented herself to Reverend Barry Bailey for her meeting....

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
133 F.3d 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-states-insurance-v-bailey-ca5-1998.