By Baptist Message staff
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (LBM)—In January, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi denied the request of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention for a summary judgment in its lawsuit with Will McRaney, the former executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.
In his ruling, Senior Judge Glen H. Davidson said it was premature to decide the case ahead of the discovery process, the stage during which McRaney’s legal team would be allowed to depose NAMB leaders, staff and trustees under oath.
Subsequently, in February, NAMB entered into a stipulation agreement with McRaney, pledging “it will not withhold any discovery responses on the basis of its First Amendment defenses or objections, including in response to discovery requests served by [McRaney] prior to the date of this Stipulation.” Judge Davidson’s decision is consistent with the instructions by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (later affirmed by the full bench), who rejected NAMB’s request to dismiss the case, finding instead that “many of the relevant facts have yet to be developed” in the case.
The federal circuit court sent the case back to the federal district court instructing the lower court to determine (1) whether NAMB intentionally and maliciously damaged McRaney’s business relationships by falsely claiming that he refused to meet with [NAMB President Kevin] Ezell, … (2) whether NAMB’s statements about McRaney were false, defamatory, and at least negligently made, … and (3) whether NAMB intentionally caused McRaney to suffer foreseeable and severe emotional distress by displaying his picture at its headquarters … .” These are among McRaney’s claims about NAMB’s alleged interference with the BCM/D, which he says contributed to his departure from that independent state organization of Baptist churches.
The federal district court ruling against NAMB followed a snub by the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear NAMB’s appeal of the ruling by the federal circuit court of appeals.
