Case Dealing With a Claim Against a Pastor for Breach of Fiduciary Duty

In Amato v. Greenquist, 287 Ill. App. 3d 921, 926, 679 N.E.2d 446, 223 Ill. Dec. 261 (1997), the plaintiff claimed a breach of fiduciary duty where he divulged confidences to the defendant-pastor in reliance on the defendant's representations regarding his training, experience and his "'commitment to God and religion'." Amato, 287 Ill. App. 3d at 932-33. While acknowledging that the defendant would have difficulty in establishing that his conduct in undermining the plaintiff's marriage was religiously motivated, this court "considered it imprudent for a court to attempt to dissect the secular from the sectarian in this equation" and determined that the plaintiff's relief lay in his other causes of action. Amato, 287 Ill. App. 3d at 933.