VERDICT AGAINST
CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS UPHELD

The United States Supreme Court in January upheld a $1.5 million award against four Christian Scientists. The judgment stemmed from a lawsuit against the church members whose treatment of an 11-year-old diabetic boy consisted of prayer with no conventional medical care. The child, Ian Lundmann, died in May 1989 from complications of the diabetes, including intense vomiting and prolonged urination.

The wrongful-death lawsuit first was filed in 1991 by the boy’s father, Douglass G. Lundmann. The four members of the Boston-based church named in the suit included Kathleen and William McKown, the boy’s mother and her husband, and Mario Tosto and Quinna Lamb, Christian Science officials. The boy’s father also sought a $9 million judgment against the church, but a Minnesota state appeals court had earlier thrown out the award. While upholding compensatory award, the federal justices refused to reinstate the larger judgment for punitive damages against the church.

The church members charged that as a consequence of the settlement they are being punished and forced to monetarily pay for religious thought and for practicing their religion. James Kaster, Lundmann’s attorney, noted that the verdict says the clear understanding “that exclusive reliance on prayer treatment instead of medical care for a seriously ill child can give rise to ... liability.”

In April 1990, the McKowns and Tosto had manslaughter charges against them dropped by a Minnesota court. The judge concluded that “no criminal proceedings would be brought regardless of result as long as they practiced their religion in good faith” and claimed that the state prosecutors had misread the law in bringing the charges. (See further, The Quarterly Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 3, 14.)

—MKG

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