RENDERED: DECEMBER 1, 2023; 10:00 A.M.
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
Commonwealth of Kentucky
Court of Appeals
NO. 2022-CA-0573-MR
THANG NGO APPELLANT
APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT
v. HONORABLE SUSAN SCHULTZ GIBSON, JUDGE
ACTION NO. 21-CI-005713
ANTHONY NGO AND THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC BISHOP OF LOUISVILLE
D/B/A ARCHDIOCESE OF
LOUISVILLE APPELLEES
OPINION
AFFIRMING
** ** ** ** **
BEFORE: THOMPSON, CHIEF JUDGE; ECKERLE AND KAREM, JUDGES.
THOMPSON, CHIEF JUDGE: Thang Ngo appeals from an order of the Jefferson
Circuit Court which dismissed his cause of action against Father Anthony Ngo. 1
We find no error and affirm.
1
The Archdiocese of Louisville moved to intervene during the circuit court proceedings. The
circuit court granted the motion to intervene over Appellant’s objection.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Father Anthony Ngo (hereinafter referred to as Father Anthony) is the
priest assigned to St. John Vianney parish in Louisville, Kentucky. Thang Ngo is a
member of the parish and a former member of the Parish Council. Appellant, and
others, believed Father Anthony was misappropriating funds donated to the parish
by parishioners. Appellant and other members of the council informed the
Archdiocese of the alleged financial irregularities and requested Father Anthony
participate in an audit of the parish accounts.
Father Anthony eventually terminated Appellant and other members
from the council. This decision was ratified by the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese
then began an investigation into the allegations.2 Appellant, along with others,
then brought the underlying cause of action seeking an accounting from Father
Anthony.3
Father Anthony and the Archdiocese of Louisville later moved to
dismiss the case pursuant to Kentucky Rules of Civil Procedure (CR) 12.02(f),
failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Appellees argued that
Appellant lacked standing to bring the underlying claim because the funds at issue
2
Comments made in the briefs indicate that this investigation was completed and there was no
merit to the financial irregularity allegations, but there is no evidence in the record to support this
claim.
3
The other plaintiffs in this case have chosen not to participate in this appeal.
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belonged to the church once they were donated. Appellees also argued the case
should be dismissed based on the doctrine of ecclesiastical abstention.
The concept of ecclesiastical abstention or church
autonomy has long been recognized as a necessary
corollary to the First Amendment’s religion clauses. To
protect the rights embodied in the Free Exercise and
Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment,
ecclesiastical abstention provides a spirit of freedom for
religious organizations, an independence from secular
control or manipulation – in short, power to decide for
themselves, free from state interference – matters of
church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.
Thus, when resolution of a case is dependent on the
question of doctrine, discipline, ecclesiastical law, rule,
or custom, or church government, secular courts must
abstain from hearing the case. Put differently, where
resolution of the disputes cannot be made without
extensive inquiry by civil courts into religious law and
polity, the First and Fourteenth Amendments mandate
that civil courts shall not act.
St. Joseph Catholic Orphan Society v. Edwards, 449 S.W.3d 727, 738-39 (Ky.
2014) (internal quotation marks, footnotes, and citations omitted).
The trial court ultimately dismissed the case based on the doctrine of
ecclesiastical abstention. This appeal followed.
ANALYSIS
Appellant argues that the trial court erred in granting the motion to
dismiss because the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine does not apply and the
controversy “can be resolved by the application of neutral principles of secular
law.” Id. at 739 (footnote and citation omitted). Appellant claims that Father
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Anthony owed a fiduciary duty to the parishioners to properly use and account for
the parish donations given to him and this does not involve church government or
religious doctrine.
It is well settled in this jurisdiction when
considering a motion to dismiss under [CR 12.02], that
the pleadings should be liberally construed in a light most
favorable to the plaintiff and all allegations taken in the
complaint to be true. Since a motion to dismiss for
failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted
is a pure question of law, a reviewing court owes no
deference to a trial court’s determination; instead, an
appellate court reviews the issue de novo.
Littleton v. Plybon, 395 S.W.3d 505, 507 (Ky. App. 2012) (internal quotation
marks, footnote, and citations omitted). We believe that the trial court did not err
in this case.
An accounting of church funds is directly related to church
governance. How parish funds were being spent was under the purview of Father
Anthony with oversight performed by the Archdiocese of Louisville. This is
supported by the fact that Appellant informed the Archdiocese of the alleged
misuse of funds and the Archdiocese initiated an investigation. In addition, the
Archdiocese intended to create a new Finance Council for the parish that will have
some input on how funds are used. If the trial court had allowed this case to move
forward to completion, any ruling it made would be an imposition on the will of
the Archdiocese and the church itself. The court would have been in a position to
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second guess the decisions of the Archdiocese as to the proper running of the
parish and administration of the parish funds. This type of situation is precisely
why the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine exists.
CONCLUSION
Based on the foregoing, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. The
court properly dismissed the case because the dispute was related to church
governance and internal church affairs.
ALL CONCUR.
BRIEF FOR APPELLANT: BRIEF FOR APPELLEE ANTHONY
NGO:
Stuart Alexander
Louisville, Kentucky Michael B. Dailey
Caroline K. Bruenderman
Louisville, Kentucky
BRIEF FOR APPELLEE THE
ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF
LOUISVILLE D/B/A
ARCHDIOCESE OF LOUISVILLE:
P. Kevin Ford
T. Colin Ford
Louisville, Kentucky
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