Murray v. Lawson

• Decision Date: 06 April 1994
• Citation: 642 A.2d 338,136 N.J. 32
• Parties: , 62 USLW 2647 Belinda MURRAY and Elrick A. Murray, M.D., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Michael Andrew LAWSON, David Crist, Jane Doe (a fictitious name) and John Doe (a fictitious name), Defendants-Appellants. Virginia BOFFARD and Daryl K. Boffard, M.D., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Timothy BARNES, Dorothy Black, Carol Ford, Barbara Carlstrom, Jane Doe (a fictitious name) and John Doe (a fictitious name), Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Page 32

136 N.J. 32

642 A.2d 338, 62 USLW 2647

Belinda MURRAY and Elrick A. Murray, M.D., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Michael Andrew LAWSON, David Crist, Jane Doe (a fictitious

name) and John Doe (a fictitious name),

Defendants-Appellants.

Virginia BOFFARD and Daryl K. Boffard, M.D., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Timothy BARNES, Dorothy Black, Carol Ford, Barbara

Carlstrom, Jane Doe (a fictitious name) and John

Doe (a fictitious name), Defendants-Appellants.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued Oct. 25, 1993.

Decided April 6, 1994.

Richard F. Collier, Somerset, for appellants Michael Andrew Lawson, David Crist, Jane Doe and John Doe.

Michael Patrick Carroll, Morristown, for appellants Timothy Barnes, Dorothy Black, Carol Ford, and Barbara Carlstrom (Michael Patrick Carroll and Richard J. Traynor, attys.).

Pamela Mandel, Millburn, for respondents Belinda Murray and Elrick A. Murray, M.D., Virginia Boffard and Daryl K. Boffard, M.D.

Frank L. Corrado, Wildwood, for amicus curiae American Civ. Liberties Union of New Jersey in Murray v. Lawson and Boffard v. Barnes (Barry & Corrado and Lisa Glick Zucker, attys.).

Dara Klassel, New York City, a member of the New Jersey and New York bars, for amici curiae Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of New Jersey in Murray v. Lawson and Boffard v. Barnes (Ansell, Zaro, Bennett and Grimm; attys.; Dara Klassel and Richard B. Ansell, Eatontown, on the brief).

Charles J. Walsh, Newark, for amicus curiae The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Murray v. Lawson and Boffard v. Barnes (Sills, Cummis, Zuckerman, Radin, Tischman, Epstein & Gross, attys.; Charles J. Walsh and Steven R. Rowland, of counsel and on the brief).

Andrea M. Silkowitz, Asst. Atty. Gen., for amicus curiae Atty. Gen. of New Jersey (Fred DeVesa, Acting Atty. Gen., atty.; Jack M. Sabatino, Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

CLIFFORD, J.

These cases, argued together before this Court, require a balance between the free-speech rights of anti-abortion protestors and the residential-privacy interests of two doctors and their families. In Murray v. Lawson, the Appellate Division upheld a permanent injunction by the Chancery Division prohibiting defendants, anti-abortion protestors, from picketing within 300 feet of plaintiffs' residence. 264 N.J.Super. 17, 624 A.2d 3 (1993). In Boffard v. Barnes, the same panel of the Appellate Division upheld a Chancery Division restriction forbidding defendants, anti-abortion protestors, from picketing within the immediate vicinity of plaintiffs' residence. 264 N.J.Super. 11, 624 A.2d 1 (1993). Defendants in both cases petitioned this Court. We granted certification, 133 N.J. 445, 627 A.2d 1149 (1993), and 133 N.J. 446, 627 A.2d 1150 (1993), to address the problems inherent in balancing free speech with residential privacy.

We now affirm the Appellate Division's judgment upholding the Murray injunction. We modify the judgment of the Appellate Division in Boffard and remand to the Chancery Division for a clarification of the restrictions contained in its injunction.

I

A. Murray v. Lawson

The facts are as set forth in the Appellate Division opinion, to which we make reference as necessary.

Plaintiff Dr. Elrick Murray is a New Jersey-licensed obstetrician and gynecologist with a private practice in Plainfield. Dr. Murray does not perform abortions at that office. He does, however, perform abortions at the Women's Medical Center in Howell, and at hospitals in Newark and in Watchung. 264 N.J.Super. at 22, 624 A.2d 3. He also performed abortions at the Medical Care Center in Woodbridge before that facility burned to the ground. Id. at 24, 624 A.2d 3. Dr. Murray and his wife, plaintiff Belinda Murray, live with their three children in Westfield in a suburban neighborhood. In 1991 the children were ages six, eleven, and fifteen. Id. at 22, 624 A.2d 3. Defendants regularly demonstrated against abortion by picketing at the Howell Clinic for about two years before January 1991. Id. at 23, 624 A.2d 3.

By engaging in some research in December 1990, defendant Lawson uncovered Plainfield and Westfield addresses for Dr. Murray. Lawson visited both addresses to confirm that they were current. On December 14, 1990, when he went to the Westfield address, Lawson was surprised to find a residence and not an office. When Lawson rang the doorbell, plaintiffs' then-fourteen-year-old son answered the door. After confirming that the house was the Murray residence, Lawson told the boy to relay a message to his father to stop doing abortions. Mrs. Murray came to the door and told Lawson to leave and not return. Lawson left immediately. Mrs. Murray testified that Lawson's visit had frightened and upset her. Ibid.

About a month later, Lawson informed the Westfield police that he and approximately fifty other people planned to picket peacefully outside the Murray residence on Sunday, January 20, 1991. The administrator of the Medical Care Center in Woodbridge warned Dr. Murray about the Sunday protest. On the advice of the Westfield police, Dr. Murray sent his family away for the day but he remained inside the house himself. Ibid. Dr. Murray testified that he would have preferred to go to the hospital that day instead because two of his patients were in labor. Id. at 24, 624 A.2d 3.

On the afternoon of January 20 two police officers met the fifty-seven picketers at a nearby school, instructed them on basic picketing rules, and escorted them to the sidewalk in front of the Murray residence. Id. at 23, 624 A.2d 3. The picketers walked in a single-file loop on the sidewalk in front of the Murray residence and in front of about ten surrounding houses. Defendants walked generally two abreast but sometimes four or five abreast. Ibid. The picketers carried placards that stated, among other things, "Dr. Murray scars women and kills their unborn children," "Elrick Murray pre-born baby exterminator and nomad abortionist," and they carried a placard that showed a decapitated infant with the caption "Elrick Murray, abortionist." Id. at 23-24, 624 A.2d 3. The picketers spoke to several neighbors including one teenager whom they asked whether he knew that a killer lived in the neighborhood. Id. at 23, 624 A.2d 3.

Plaintiffs testified that the demonstration had the following effects: (1) it deprived the Murrays of their usual Sunday family time; (2) it harmed Dr. Murray's ability to practice medicine because he was forced to remain home to manage his patients in labor in lieu of managing them at the hospital; (3) it caused Dr. Murray to curtail his professional work because he felt compelled to stay home more often; and (4) it caused Mrs. Murray to suffer from nervousness and depression. Id. at 24, 624 A.2d 3.

In February 1991 plaintiffs filed suit in the Chancery Division seeking damages and injunctive relief against defendants, Lawson, Crist, and fictitiously-named others. The five-count complaint charged Lawson with trespass and charged all defendants with disruption of plaintiffs' use and enjoyment of their property, intrusion on their seclusion, damage to Dr. Murray's professional reputation and pecuniary interests, and deprivation of the right to privacy under the United States and the New Jersey Constitutions. Id. at 21, 624 A.2d 3. On February 8, 1991, the first scheduled hearing date of the case, defendants Lawson and Crist picketed for about fifteen minutes on the sidewalk in front of plaintiffs' residence and in front of other residences on the block. Id. at 24, 624 A.2d 3.

After a hearing on February 14, 1991, the Chancery Division entered a temporary restraining order on February 22, restricting the picketers from using the words "murderer" or "killer," from referring to members of the Murray family by name, from carrying the sign with the decapitated fetus, and from hand-delivering written material to residents of the neighborhood. In addition, the order limited defendants' demonstrating to picketing by two persons, for one hour, every three weeks. Id. at 21 n. 1, 624 A.2d 3.

No demonstrators picketed at the Murray residence until May 4, 1991. In the interim, however, on April 22, 1991, Dr. Murray discovered on arriving for work at the Medical Care Center in Woodbridge that the building had burned to the ground. Police and fire officials concluded that the fire had been the product of an arsonist. Ibid. Defendant Lawson picketed at the Howell clinic and at Dr. Murray's Plainfield office once between April 22 and May 4, 1991. On May 2, 1991, Howell Township police received a telephone message threatening the bombing of the Howell clinic, whereupon the police evacuated the site. Id. at 24-25, 624 A.2d 3. Authorities never determined conclusively who was responsible for the fire at the Woodbridge clinic or for the bomb threat to the Howell clinic.

Two days after the bomb threat, on May 4, 1991, Lawson and another picketer reappeared to protest in front of the Murray residence. Dr. Murray called the police. After they had arrived in response to his call, the doctor went outside and exchanged words, some of them heated, with the picketers. He returned to his house at the urging of police, but then went outside again and took a swing at Lawson. Although no evidence linked defendants to the arson or to the bomb threat, Dr. Murray felt threatened by and fearful of defendants. Dr. Murray was later convicted of simple assault in the Westfield Municipal Court. Id. at 25, 624 A.2d 3.

After a final hearing, the Chancery Division entered a permanent injunction in July 1991, prohibiting "defendants and all persons in active concert or participation with them * * * from picketing in any form including parking, parading or demonstrating in any manner, within 300 feet of the Murray residence * * *." The Chancery Division also made other rulings: it dismissed the claim for interference with Dr. Murray's...