Gottfried v. Medical Planning Services, Inc.
| Decision Date | 08 February 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-3488.,00-3488. |
| Citation | 280 F.3d 684 |
| Parties | Holly GOTTFRIED, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MEDICAL PLANNING SERVICES, INC.; The Offices of Dr. Manohar Lal, M.D.; Dr. Lal; Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander; Judge Jane Bond, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Amy Trejbal, Patrick J. Perotti (argued and briefed), Dworken & Bernstein Co., LPA, Painesville, OH, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Robert M. Gippin (briefed), Karen Kelly Grasso (argued and briefed), Thompson Hine LLP, Cleveland, OH, Allyson Miller Leonard (briefed), William T. Pivik (briefed), Summit County Prosecutor's Office, Akron, OH, John P. Quinn (briefed), Akron, OH, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: DAUGHTREY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; COHN, Senior District Judge.*
Plaintiff-Appellant Holly Gottfried (Gottfried) appeals from the district court's decision finding that a state court injunction restricting abortion clinic picketing obtained by defendants-appellees Medical Planning Services, Inc., the Offices of Dr. Manohar Lal, M.D. and Dr. Lal, individually, (the Medical Planning defendants) on August 7, 1986 against Tri County Christian Community of Greater Ohio and others, none of whom objected to entry of the injunction, does not violate Gottfried's First Amendment rights. The injunction at issue was vacated on January 10, 2000 on the motion of Medical Planning during the pendency of Gottfried's case in the district court. Gottfried argues that the injunction, to which Gottfried was not a party, violated the First Amendment. Defendants Appellees Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander,1 and Judge Jane Bond, Summit County Judge for the Court of Common Pleas2 (the Summit County defendants) argue that the dissolution of the state court injunction rendered Gottfried's claim moot.
At the panel's request, all parties were directed to brief the question of mootness. For the reasons which follow, we find the fact that the state court injunction has been dissolved renders this case moot. Although Gottfried argues that the case is not moot because she is entitled to damages from the time of filing her complaint until the time the injunction was dissolved, her damage claim is unsupportable and does not save the case from mootness. Addressing the merits of Gottfried's constitutional claims under the circumstances would effectively result in an advisory opinion.
This case has an extensive factual background and procedural history, part of which is described as follows in a prior panel opinion, following the initial decision by the district court:
In 1985, Dr. Manohar Lal, his OB/GYN office, and his abortion clinic, Medical Planning Services, sued for and obtained a permanent injunction against the protest activities of certain anti-abortion organizations and two "Does." Judge James P. Winter of the Court of Common Pleas in Summit County, Ohio entered a permanent injunction on August 7, 1986. That injunction applies to the named and unnamed defendants, those acting in concert with them, and all other persons who have notice of the injunction. In pertinent part, it prohibits anyone from picketing at Dr. Lal's home and his OB/GYN office; it protects the doorways and driveways at Dr. Lal's clinic; it forbids "mass picketing or any other type of picketing ... which directly or indirectly interferes" with the business of the clinic; and it prevents more than four people from picketing on each of the sidewalks in front of and alongside the clinic. Because the parties consented to this injunction, it was not appealed.
Holly Gottfried was not a party to the state lawsuit supporting the injunction. She was only ten years old when it was entered. An anti-abortion activist, Gottfried wants to picket and distribute information at Dr. Lal's home, office, and clinic, but she fears she will be arrested if she does. On July 20, 1995, she filed this suit in federal court against Dr. Lal, his office, his clinic, the City of Akron, Akron Police Chief Larry Givens, Summit County, Summit County Sheriff Richard Warren, and Judge Jane Bond, the successor to Judge Winter on the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. Through 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Gottfried asserted violations of her constitutional rights of free speech, free press, peaceful assembly, association, free exercise of religion, due process, and equal protection under the United States and Ohio Constitutions. She asked the District Court to declare the injunction unconstitutional on its face or as applied and to enjoin the defendants from enforcing the challenged portions of the injunction against her. She also requested $200,000 in damages in addition to her costs and attorney's fees.
Dr. Lal, his office, and Medical Planning Services moved to dismiss Gottfried's complaint under the Anti Injunction Act, Colorado River abstention, and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. The district court initially granted this motion without a hearing. Characterizing the case as presenting "an issue of federal-state comity that appears unique in its factual setting," the court determined that the Anti-Injunction Act, Colorado River abstention, and Rooker-Feldman did not bar Gottfried's federal suit. Nonetheless the court dismissed her case, reasoning that "if a non-party to a consent decree has standing to challenge a state court consent decree in an action brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 then actions in state court which are concluded by the entry of a consent decree will be of scant value and the concepts of comity between the federal and state courts will suffer." Gottfried then filed for postjudgment relief. The court reinstated her complaint and scheduled an evidentiary hearing, specifically reserving the jurisdictional issue. After the hearing, the court again dismissed the case "in the interest of state-federal comity" without ruling on the constitutionality of the injunction....
Gottfried v. Medical Planning, 142 F.3d 326, 328 (6th Cir.1998).
Although not mentioned in the prior panel opinion, the district court held a two-day bench trial and made extensive findings of fact that were not challenged on the first appeal. They are set forth in the district court's Memorandum Opinion of December 20, 1996 and relate to the parties, prior state court proceedings, the parties' positions, picketing activity prior to and after the state court injunction, and Dr. Lal's OB/GYN practice. There are also findings as to Gottfried, including the initiation of Gottfried's case.
As noted above, Gottfried appealed the district court's decision to abstain from ruling on the constitutionality of the injunction. A panel of this court affirmed the district court's decision to abstain but remanded the case "with instructions to reinstate Gottfried's action and stay any further proceedings pending resolution in the state courts." Id. at 333. The panel also noted that its decision left Gottfried with two options in state court:
.... If she freely and without reservation presents her constitutional concerns to the state court, litigates them there, and has them decided there, then she will forego her right to return to federal court; her only relief will be from the Ohio appellate courts and in review by the United States Supreme Court on certiorari. Id. at 419, 84 S.Ct. at 466-67. Her other option will be to notify the state court of her constitutional objections but to explicitly reserve federal jurisdiction over them should the state court decide that the injunction proscribes her actions. Migra, 465 U.S. at 85 n. 7, 104 S.Ct. at 898 n. 7; England, 375 U.S. at 421, 84 S.Ct. at 467-68; Government & Civic Employees Organizing Comm., CIO v. Windsor, 353 U.S. 364, 366-67, 77 S.Ct. 838, 839, 1 L.Ed.2d 894 (1957). This latter option will protect her from the preclusive effects of the state proceeding, allowing her to return to federal court for determination of the merits of her constitutional claim after she exhausts her remedies in the state courts. See England, 375 U.S. at 416-17, 84 S.Ct. at 465-66.
Gottfried chose the latter option and returned to state court by filing an action in prohibition3 with the Ohio Supreme Court, which was denied.
Thereafter, in 1999, Gottfried returned to district court again raising her constitutional claims.4 On December 21, 1999, the district court entered an order requesting the parties to brief eight issues regarding the merits of Gottfried's constitutional claim, including her entitlement to damages by January 10, 2000. See district court's order of December 21, 1999. Defendants-Appellees requested, and were granted, additional briefing time because they were seeking to have the state court injunction dissolved. In fact, Medical Planning returned to the Court of Common Pleas of Summit County, Ohio and moved to dissolve the injunction. Apparently, Dr. Lal, the physician who performed abortions at the clinic, had retired from the active practice of medicine and had not performed any abortions at the clinic since late 1998. On January 10, 2000, the Summit County Court of Common Pleas dissolved the injunction.
In its Memorandum Opinion of March 6, 2000, the district court framed the issue for decision as "whether the challenged portions of the state court injunction in effect from August 7, 1986 to January 10, 2000, violated plaintiff Holly Gottfried's First Amendment rights, and if so, whether these defendants are liable." The district court then repeated its extensive findings of fact originally set forth in its December 20, 1996 Memorandum Opinion, which included the following under the heading "Positions of the Parties:"
12. Plaintiff Holly Gottfried is opposed to abortion and has stated that she desires and intends to peacefully picket and distribute literature...
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