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Geary v. Visitation of Blessed Virgin Mary School, 7
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324 (3d Cir. 1993), was a court case in the
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which considered whether a religious school in
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could be sued for
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.


Facts

Appellant was employed as a lay instructor by the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church. She was discharged from her employment at the age of 50, after 29 years of employment. She had a steady record of favorable performance reviews. Had her employment continued, she would have been the highest-paid lay instructor on the school's staff. Instead, she was replaced by a younger, lower-paid instructor.''Geary'', 7 F.3d at 326. The school claimed that she was discharged because she married a man who had been divorced in the past, a violation of church doctrine on the subject. Geary claimed that her discharge was because of her age.


Procedural history

The appellee filed a complaint with the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
(EEOC), claiming that the school had violated the terms of the
Age Discrimination in Employment Act The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA; to ) is a United States labor law that forbids employment discrimination against anyone, at least 40 years of age, in the United States (see ). In 1967, the bill was signed into law by Pr ...
(ADEA). When the EEOC complaint was filed, the school took steps to cancel the appellee's health insurance, stating that the cancellation was necessary because of the legal action. The EEOC ultimately ruled that the discharge itself did not constitute a violation of the ADEA, but the subsequent cancellation of the insurance was retaliatory in nature and was a violation of the Act. (a), (d). A suit was brought in the
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, alleging violations of the ADEA. The District Court held that: (1) The ADEA does not apply to religious schools and, (2) The appellee's state claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful discharge were without merit. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the school. The decision of the District Court was appealed, resulting in this decision.


Question presented

Does the ADEA protect a lay instructor employed in a church-operated elementary school?''Geary'', 7 F.3d at 325.


Answer

Maybe. ADEA can only apply to an employment action that was taken based on a claim of religious doctrine or tenet if the plaintiff does not challenge the validity of the doctrine or tenet and only asks whether the doctrine or tenet actually motivated the challenged employment action.


Key points of analysis

The court recognized the possibility of church-state "entanglement", but relied on the holding in '' DeMarco v. Holy Cross High School'', in distinguishing between "ongoing supervision" and "limited inquiry" with respect to government oversight of religious schools. The court found that there was no direct conflict in the case at hand between the secular prohibitions contained in the ADEA and the religious doctrine that was claimed to be the motivating factor behind the discharge. The claim that the cancellation of the appellee's insurance was based on the ongoing legal dispute was allowed to proceed because continued prosecution of that claim would not lead to any inquiry regarding church doctrine.''Geary'', 7 F.3d at 329.


Holding

No issue of material fact was raised to suggest any motivation other than the claimed doctrinal reason for the discharge. The
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...
of the district court was affirmed.''Geary'', 7 F.3d at 332. The court did, however, find that an issue of material fact existed as to whether or not the cancellation of insurance was retaliatory in nature. The
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...
of the district court was vacated and the case remanded for further fact-finding on this specific issue.


Other information

Although the central holding of this case is still valid, other courts have either declined to follow or declined to extend the ruling to employees of church-based organizations whose positions are "ministerial" or "ecclesiastical" in function. The determination of whether or not a position is ministerial in nature seems to be almost mathematical in its application, looking almost exclusively at the amount of time that an employee spends on religion-oriented tasks as compared to non-religion tasks.


References


External links

* * {{caselaw source , case = ''Geary v. Visitation of Blessed Virgin Mary School'', 7 F.3d 324 (3d Cir. 1993) , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/655299/marie-geary-v-visitation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-parish-school-francis/ , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=18160808072156985390 , justia =https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/7/324/479511/ , openjurist =https://openjurist.org/7/f3d/324 United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit cases 1993 in United States case law Education in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia Ageism case law Divorce in the United States Darby, Pennsylvania