In Boliak v. Reilly, (NY App., Dec. 18, 2025), three employees of a Catholic high school brought hostile work environment claims alleging that the school's principal regularly subjected them to vulgar, sexist, ageist, racist and homophobic remarks and epithets. One of the employees also brought a defamation claim. A New York state appellate court held that the trial court improperly dismissed the hostile work environment claims under the ministerial exception doctrine, saying in part:
... [I]n the absence of controlling caselaw, we follow the 9th Circuit's approach and find that the ministerial exception should not be extended to apply to conduct such as unlawful harassment simply because such conduct is perpetrated by a religious employer.... [T]here is no First Amendment reason to permit the ministerial exception to shield a religious institution from its "obligation to protect its employees from harassment when extending such protection would not contravene the Church's doctrinal prerogatives or trench upon its protected ministerial decisions"....
Here, plaintiffs are correct that there is no religious justification for Father Reilly's appalling conduct, and analyzing their hostile work environment claims would not require the Court to improperly interfere with religious doctrine or defendants' personnel decisions. Accordingly, plaintiffs' hostile work environment claims should not have been dismissed on the basis of the ministerial exception....
The Court, however, held that the defamation claim was properly dismissed, saying in part:
The comments made by Father Reilly and defendant Gregory Manos about Boliak are not subject to the ministerial exception because they do not implicate matters of religious doctrine and practice.... However, the comments are nevertheless subject to a qualified privilege, as they were made by Father Reilly and Manos in furtherance of a common interest of a religious organization.... The record shows that the alleged defamatory statements were privileged because Manos and Father Reilly made them to each other and to others charged with supervision of Boliak....
HRD reports on the decision.
