# LaVonne Pfeil, Individually and as Trustee for Heirs of Henry Pfeil v. St. Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession of Worthington, Nobles County, Minnesota

> Supreme Court of Minnesota · April 6, 2016 · 877 N.W.2d 528

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9823936

## Case

- **Full name:** LaVonne PFEIL, Individually and as Trustee for Heirs of Henry Pfeil, Deceased, Appellant, v. ST. MATTHEWS EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF the UNALTERED AUGSBURG CONFESSION of WORTHINGTON, Nobles County, Minnesota, Et Al., Respondents
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Minnesota
- **Decided:** April 6, 2016
- **Citations:** 877 N.W.2d 528; 2016 Minn. LEXIS 170; 2016 WL 1358029
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Gildea
- **Judges:** Anderson, Lillehaug, Gildea, Hudson, Submission, Chutich
- **Cited by:** 15 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9823936

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that analyzing statements made during a church disciplinary proceeding would improperly interfere with a church decision regarding faith or mission
- observing that statements “cannot serve as the basis for a defamation claim” when “adjudicating the truth or falsity of the statements would require the court to consider and interpret matters of church doctrine”
- reversing course on previous holding and noting “Hosanna-Tabor leads us to conclude that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine is not a jurisdictional bar”
- applying the church autonomy doctrine to “statements made in the context of a religious disciplinary proceeding when those statements are disseminated only to members of the church congregation or the organization's membership or hierarchy” (emphasis added)

## Opinion text

GILDEA, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I join in the dissent of Justice Lillehaug.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9823936. Public record. Not legal advice.