The latest “swoon-and-fall” case against a church comes with a novel twist –- the plaintiff was allegedly injured when another member of an Oregon church who was “slain in the spirit” fell on her.

Congregants have sued evangelical churches for failing to protect them from injury when they swoon during an altar call. The Michigan Court of Appeals recently upheld a $40,000 jury award, finding that a church had a duty to provide an usher to catch a swooning congregant as she fell backward.

But the lawsuit filed last week against the Portland Onnuri Church in Beaverton involves a congregant who was allegedly acting as a “catcher” when she suffered a fractured spinal vertebra.

Shin Lim Kim alleges the leader of a church service on Aug. 11, 2008 asked her to catch another congregant “who was going to be 'blessed' or who would be 'slain in the spirit.'” The leader then laid hands on Hyun Joo Yoon, who “fell backwards and began flailing, falling on and injuring plaintiff.”

The church was negligent, the complaint says, in not providing multiple catchers; failing to discuss “safe catching strategy” with congregants; selecting Kim -- “a small and not particularly strong person” -- as a catcher; and failing to instruct congregants on “the correct procedures to fall, so that they would not injure themselves and injure the person assisting and/or catching them.”

The suit, which also names Yoon as a defendant for “failing to control her body” when she had hands laid on her, seeks medical expenses and up to $125,000 in pain and suffering damages. “Some of plaintiff's injuries are permanent in nature,” it says.

The ruling in the Michigan case was not published and, as out-of-state precedent, would not be binding in Oregon. The appeals court also stressed that the case had “very narrow and unique circumstances” which allowed a legal duty to be imposed on the defendants.

The pastor of Mount Hope Church in Lansing had, the court noted, “made it clear to the congregants that ushers were trained to catch persons who fall during an altar call” and, according to the plaintiff's testimony, an usher “specifically solicited her participation in the altar call” and “directed her to a specific place before the altar where a specific minister would pray over her.”

Kim's case goes further than Dadd v. Mount Hope Church by suggesting churches have a duty to protect catchers from injury. Unless Onnuri officials made it clear to catchers that they would be safe during altar calls, will Oregon courts decide that Kim assumed the risk of injury?

By Matthew Heller
4/25/09