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JULY 14, 2006; 2:00 P.M. TO BE PUBLISHED

Commonwealth Of Kentucky Court of Appeals
NO. 2005-CA-001110-MR

PAT CARGILL AND SHERMAN ARTHUR

APPELLANT

v.

APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON CIRCUIT COURT HONORABLE MARTIN F. MCDONALD, JUDGE ACTION NO. 03-CI-002685

GREATER SALEM BAPTIST CHURCH; WILLIAM M. BLACKFORD, IV; WILLIE NEWBY, SR.; PHILLIP STEPTEAU; LARRY AUSTIN; ALEX JONES; GEORGE JOHNSON; MICHAEL ROYSTON; WALTER PARMER; JAMES TONEY; JASPER CRENSHAW; AND KEVIN BURNS

APPELLEES

OPINION AFFIRMING ** ** ** ** ** BEFORE: GUIDUGLI, HENRY, AND SCHRODER, JUDGES. Pat Cargill (Cargill) and Sherman Arthur

GUIDUGLI, JUDGE:

(Arthur) appeal from an order of the Jefferson Circuit Court granting the Appellees'1 motion for summary judgment. Cargill

and Arthur contend that the circuit court incorrectly determined
1

The Appellees include Greater Salem Baptist Church, Inc., its senior Pastor, and its Deacons.

that the Appellees' oral and written statements were not actionable as defamatory. Having concluded that the circuit

court properly granted summary judgment, we affirm. Cargill and Arthur are former members of Greater Salem Baptist Church (Greater Salem), which is a Congregationalist church founded under the National Baptist Convention in alliance with the Southern Baptist Church. The recognized leaders of the

church are the Pastor and the Deacons; however, the true governing body of Greater Salem is its congregation. The Bible

is the ultimate source of authority for Greater Salem and its leaders. Under the guidance of Matthew 18:15-18, a disciplinary committee comprised of the Deacons and the Pastor, deals with disciplinary matters requiring action. If the disciplinary

committee is unable to resolve an issue, the matter is presented to the congregation. The congregation may either admonish the

offender or strip the offender of church membership. This appeal stems from a congregational meeting held by the Deacons and the Pastor after a church service on Sunday, September 22, 2002. This meeting resulted from disciplinary

issues concerning the church and a few of its members. Specifically, the Deacons addressed certain allegations that were being made against the Pastor by a "Concerned Members" group. The "Concerned Members" group was formed by a group of

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Greater Salem members after April Smith, a member of the church, alleged that she had an extramarital affair with the Pastor. The group wrote letters to the disciplinary committee demanding action, held meetings, and sent unauthorized letters to members of the church. The disciplinary committee stated that it did

not feel that any additional action was necessary regarding the allegations of the Pastor's affair. In addition to addressing the Pastor's alleged affair, four Deacons recommended that the congregation terminate the church membership of two members of the "Concerned Members" group; Cargill and Arthur. The recommendation for Cargill's The first

termination stemmed from a series of two events.

issue concerned the Pastor's alleged affair with April Smith. The Deacons claimed that Cargill spearheaded the "Concerned Members" group and advised April Smith to write a letter that accused the Pastor of having an extramarital affair with her. They also alleged that Cargill was the owner of a Post Office box which sent unauthorized mailings to church members. The Deacons also addressed issues concerning the cleaning services Cargill provided for Greater Salem. In 1999,

Greater Salem hired Cargill's cleaning service, De's Dusters, to do janitorial work for the church. Greater Salem accepted

Cargill's bid because she offered to provide her own cleaning supplies, which would result in a $2,000 annual savings for the

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church.

On February 10, 2002, the Deacons sent Cargill a letter

to inform her that the church would no longer need her cleaning services. The Deacons alleged that they had received complaints

about the cleanliness of the church and about inappropriate behavior by De's Dusters' employees. Additionally, the Deacons

claimed that Cargill owed the church $2,184.50 for supplies she charged to the church. Cargill did not reimburse the church,

because she felt that the supplies were personal to the church and not part of the cleaning supplies she agreed to provide. However, the Deacons alleged that, pursuant to their agreement, De's Dusters should have provided the supplies. The recommendation for Arthur's termination resulted from his work as the Deacon in charge of the music program. There were several recordings made in 2001 of the church choir, and Arthur was in charge of selling and distributing the recordings. The Deacons alleged that Arthur failed to maintain

an accurate record of funds collected on the sale of the tapes and CD's. Additionally, the Deacons alleged that Arthur mishandled the purchase of a drum set, costing Greater Salem $2,500. After being asked by the Deacons to do research on a

new drum set for the church, Arthur conducted research on the Internet and obtained a general description from a brochure. Arthur recommended a drum set to the church, which Greater Salem

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purchased.

Unfortunately, the drum set was too small and was

non-returnable. In addition to holding the congregational meeting on September 22, 2002, the disciplinary committee sent out a letter to every person on the church's mailing list. Although the

letter was dated September 22, 2002, it was sent out sometime in the middle of October, 2002. The "September 22, 2002" letter

generally paralleled the allegations made against Cargill and Arthur in the congregational meeting on September 22, 2002.2 However, there is some dispute as to whether the statements made in the letter were less severe than what was actually stated during the September 22, 2002, oral presentation to the congregation.3

2

The "September 22, 2002" letter stated in relevant part as follows: Sherman Arthur - Former Deacon/Director

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