Tort Liability Of Unincorporated Churches

Jane Jones is a member of the Praise the Lord Church, which is an unincorporated church in Bear Grass, North Carolina. On her way to choir practice, Jane steps into a hole in the church parking lot and breaks her ankle. Jane loves her church, but she really needs a new car. Jane then files a lawsuit against her church alleging that it failed to properly maintain its parking lot.

Does Jane have a cause of action against the church? No, the law in North Carolina prohibits one member of an unincorporated church from recovering damages from the church for the tortious conduct of another member. In the case of Williamson v. Wallace, 29 N.C. App. 370 (1976), the plaintiff, a member of Greystone Baptist Church, sued the trustees of the church to recover damages for bodily injury she sustained which she alleged was caused by the negligence of the church when risers collapsed on her. The Court of Appeals upheld summary judgment for the defendants based on the following rule of law:

That the members of an unincorporated association are engaged in a joint enterprise, and the negligence of each member in the prosecution of that enterprise is imputable to each and every other member, so that the member who has suffered damages to his person, property, or reputation through the tortious conduct of another member of the association may not recover from the association for such damage, although he may recover individually from the member actually guilty of the tort.

The Williamson Court based its ruling on the holding in Goard v. Branscom, 15 N.C. App. 34 (1972), where a plaintiff sued a church for failure of its employees to take reasonable care to keep oil and grease off the sidewalks after she slipped on oil and sustained injuries. The Court held in Goard that because an unincorporated religious congregation was, at best a quasi corporation and not a true corporation, its members were neither licensees or invitees, but merely engaged in a joint enterprise with all other members. For that reason, the Court found no legal grounds upon which to authorize a member of a church or denomination to recover from the quasi corporation for the negligence of an agent, employee, or another member thereof. Based on the quasi corporation theory, the plaintiff, as a member of the church, was one of the persons in possession of the premises involved and for that reason could not be a licensee or an invitee. Rather, each member of the congregation "was engaged in the joint enterprise of worshipping Almighty God in fellowship together according to the dictates of his own conscience."Conclusion: When investigating a claim against a church, one of the first things you should determine is whether or not the church is incorporated. If it is incorporated, then it has the same status as any other corporation. If on the other hand the church is unincorporated, the claim may be barred by the applicable law. It is important to remember, however, that the law bars a claim against the church but not against the member, who is guilty of the tort.

If you have any questions regarding this E-Flash or other Tort Litigation issues, please contact E-Flash author Steve Rowe at 252.972.7108 or srowe@poynerspruill.com or the Group's chair, Nick Ellis at 252.972.7115 or jnellis@poynerspruill.com.