ANIMAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF FL., INC. v. Siegel

• Decision Date: 06 February 2004
• Docket Number: No. 5D03-653.,5D03-653.
• Parties: ANIMAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF FLORIDA, INC., et al., Appellant, v. David SIEGEL and Westgate Resorts, Ltd., etc., Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

867 So.2d 451

ANIMAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION OF FLORIDA, INC., et al., Appellant, v. David SIEGEL and Westgate Resorts, Ltd., etc., Appellees.

No. 5D03-653.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

February 6, 2004.

Rehearing Denied March 17, 2004.

Thomas R. Julin & Patricia Acosta of Hunton & Williams, Miami, for Appellants.

Michael Marder, Victor Kline and Amanda Chapman of Greenspoon, Marder, Hirschfeld, Rafkin, Ross & Berger, P.A., Orlando, for Appellees.

PALMER, J.

The Animal Rights Foundation of Florida and Heather Lischin (collectively "the Foundation") appeal the non-final order entered by the trial court granting a temporary injunction to David Siegel and Westgate Resorts, Inc. We reverse.

David Siegel is president of Westgate Resorts, which is engaged in the business of timeshare development. The events precipitating the request for an injunction stem from Siegel's hiring of Tiger's Eye Productions to provide entertainment for Westgate Resorts through twice weekly animal shows as a draw for potential buyers. Tiger's Eye is an exotic animal performance company.

In August 2002, Siegel and Westgate filed a complaint against the Foundation alleging claims of tortious interference with business relationships, invasion of privacy, slander, and libel. The Foundation is a non-profit organization founded on the principle that animals have the right to live their lives "free of exploitation, abuse, and harm inflicted upon them by society." Foundation members conduct demonstrations and letter writing campaigns, and use other media to promote animal rights. The complaint alleged that on or about April 4, 2002, Foundation supporters began to publish false statements about Siegel and Westgate concerning their continued association with Tiger's Eye. The Foundation allegedly picketed both at the front gate of Siegel's residential community and at his Westgate business offices, and circulated leaflets wherein the Foundation published various statements including claims that "David Siegel abuses animals" and that Westgate was "supporting animal abuse." The complaint sought both damages and injunctive relief.

Siegel and Westgate filed an emergency motion seeking a temporary injunction prohibiting the Foundation from publishing false and defamatory statements. After a hearing, the trial court denied the request for injunctive relief, finding that "a preliminary injunction which prohibits peaceful assembly and imposes prior restraints on speech is not sustainable under the first amendment and common law principles," and that "equity will not enjoin an actual or threatened defamation." The trial court also found that the cases cited in support of the injunctive relief involved "economic speech" and were therefore distinguishable from this case.

When protest activities continued, Westgate and Siegel filed a second emergency motion for a temporary injunction. This time, after receiving and considering additional evidence, the trial court granted the motion and entered a temporary injunction against the Foundation.

The Foundation challenges the injunction, raising two claims of error: (1) that Siegel and Westgate failed to meet the legal requirements for issuance of a temporary injunction, and, in the alternative, (2) that, even if a prima facie case for injunctive relief was made, the instant injunction operates as an improper prior restraint on its constitutional right of free speech granted by the state and federal constitutions.¹ We conclude that the evidence of record was insufficient to warrant the issuance of an injunction because said evidence failed to prove that Siegel and Westgate were entitled to receive a temporary injunction and because portions of the instant injunction violate the Foundation's first amendment rights.

The instant injunction operates to regulate both speech itself (that is, the Foundation's spoken and written word) and symbolic speech commonly referred to as "expression" or "verbal acts" (that is, the Foundation's picketing and demonstrating). In pertinent part, the injunction reads as follows:

INJUNCTION

* * *

B. That defendants Heather Lischin and the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, and their servants, employees, agents and any person or entity acting on their own behalf or at their request, and any person in active concert or participation with them (hereinafter "Defendants") are forthwith and immediately enjoined from tortiously interfering with Plaintiffs' advantageous business relationships by directly or indirectly publishing verbally, or in writing the following statements:

"David Siegel abuses animals"

"David Siegel condones animal abuse"

"Now featuring at Westgate Animal abuse"

"David Siegel supports animal abuse"

"Westgate supports animal abuse"

"Westgate supports cat beater"

"David Siegel supports cruelty to animals"

"Westgate supports cruelty to animals"

"Now featuring at Westgate animal abuse" and

"Westgate refuses to stop sponsoring animal cruelty," to:

(1) Plaintiffs' actual or prospective customers and their guests at the entrance to, or within any of Plaintiffs' timeshare in Florida. "Customers" shall mean all persons who have been invited by Plaintiffs, either directly or indirectly, to purchase or lease a timeshare unit at any of Westgate Resorts, Ltd's resorts. "Guests" shall mean all persons who have been invited by customers of Westgate Resorts, Ltd. "Invited" means those persons who have come to any of Westgate Resorts, Ltd's resorts as a result of any advertising, marketing or promotional activities by Westgate Resorts, Ltd.

(2) David Siegel's neighbors at the entrance to, or within, the subdivision wherein the Home is located.

C. That Defendants are enjoined from picketing at the gates of the subdivision wherein the Home is located or the entrance of Plaintiffs' timeshare resorts in Florida except that Defendants may have 5 agents or less appear on either side of the street from the gates of the subdivision wherein the Home is located and the other side of the road on which any of Plaintiffs' Florida timeshare resorts are located. The Foundation's agents shall be enjoined from videotaping any passers-by; from using megaphone or bull horn; from shouting at passers-by and from prohibiting the free flow of traffic in all the foregoing locations.

In Liberty Fin. Mortgage Corp. v. Clampitt, 667 So.2d 880 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996), the Second District set forth the applicable standard for the issuance of a temporary injunction as follows:

The general function of a temporary injunction is to preserve the status quo until full relief can be granted in a final hearing. Such an injunction is an extraordinary remedy. It should be granted only sparingly and only after the moving party has alleged and proved facts entitling it to relief.

(Citations omitted). Generally, in order to succeed on a motion for temporary injunction the moving party must prove that:

(1) the party has a clear legal right to the relief requested; that is, a substantial likelihood of success on the merits;

(2) irreparable harm will likely result if the trial court refuses to issue injunctive relief because an adequate remedy at law is not available; and,

(3) the public interest will be served by the imposition of an injunction.

Hall v. City of Orlando, 555 So.2d 963 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990); South Florida Limousines, Inc. v. Broward County Aviation Dep't., 512 So.2d 1059 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987).

In applying this analysis to the instant injunctive order, we will first discuss the injunction provisions relating to limitations on the Foundation's right to picket, and then address the prohibitions relating to the list of banned phrases.

We begin by recognizing that peaceful demonstrations in public places such as streets and sidewalks are protected by the first amendment yet subject to reasonable regulation. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 116, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). The determination of whether a regulation is reasonable initially depends upon whether the regulation is content-neutral or viewpoint based.² Here, the restrictions placed upon the Foundation's right to picket generally relate to issues concerning the manner in which the picketing takes place, not to the content of the message delivered by the picketers; therefore, the regulations are content-neutral. As such, the picketing provisions of the injunction do not constitute traditional prior restraints which are subject to elevated constitutional scrutiny; however, general first amendment principles still apply. See Madsen v. Women's Health Ctr., Inc., 512 U.S. 753, 763 n. 2, 114 S.Ct. 2516, 129 L.Ed.2d 593 (1994). To that end, when evaluating the constitutionality of a content-neutral injunction issued relating to picketing activity the court must determine "whether the challenged provisions of the injunction burden no more speech than necessary to serve a significant government interest." Madsen, 512 U.S. at 765, 114 S.Ct. 2516. In applying this analysis, our courts have found significant government interests to exist in instances where an injunction is entered to ensure the public safety and order, to promote the free flow of traffic on the public streets and sidewalks, and to protect the property rights of all citizens, concluding that such interests are "sufficient to justify an appropriately tailored injunction to protect them." Madsen, 512 U.S. at 768, 114 S.Ct. 2516.

Here, the trial court's injunction prohibits picketing which would impede the free flow of traffic. While such restrictions are generally allowed to support the significant public interest in promoting the free flow of traffic on the public streets and sidewalks while at the same time not burdening more speech than necessary, the entry of such injunctive relief in this case was improper in light of the fact that the record is devoid of any evidence that the Foundation had impeded or was likely to impede the free flow of traffic absent...