Blackard v. Memphis Area Medical Center for Women, Inc.

262 F.3d 568, 2001 WL 959007
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 2001
DocketNo. 00-5326
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 262 F.3d 568 (Blackard v. Memphis Area Medical Center for Women, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blackard v. Memphis Area Medical Center for Women, Inc., 262 F.3d 568, 2001 WL 959007 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

CLAY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs, Michael, Sharon and Ashley Blackard, filed the instant action in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee alleging that Defendants, Memphis Area Medical Center for Women, Inc. (“MCW”) and Fazel Ma-[570]*570nejwala, M.D., violated the Tennessee Parental Consent for Abortion by Minors Act (the “Act” or the “Parental Consent Act”), Tennessee Code Annotated §§ 37-10-301 to -307 (1996). Plaintiffs claim that Defendants performed an abortion on Ashley Blackard, who was then a seventeen-year-old minor, without the consent of her parents, Michael and Sharon Blackard, and assert a battery claim, based on the alleged violation of the Act and common law. Plaintiffs Michael and Sharon Blackard also asserted a claim for interference with family relations based on the Act.

On November 19,1999, the district court entered an order granting Defendants’ motion for relief from a prior order denying their respective motions to dismiss (“motion for relief from a prior order”). The district court’s November 19, 1999 order held that Plaintiffs could not rely on the Parental Consent Act as a basis for their claims because its enforcement was enjoined at the time that Ashley Blackard obtained her abortion. Although Ashley Blackard’s common law battery claim was permitted to go forward, Michael and Sharon Blackard’s claims were dismissed. Plaintiffs now appeal from the final judgment arguing that the district court’s order granting Defendants’ motion for relief from a prior order was erroneous. For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM the district court’s November 19, 1999 order and thus the final judgment.

BACKGROUND

On March 26, 1998, Ashley Blackard, who was seventeen years old at the time, traveled with her boyfriend to MCW to obtain an abortion, which was performed by Defendant Manejwala. Ashley Black-ard consented to the abortion procedure, but neither she, Defendant Manejwala, nor Defendant MCW obtained consent for the abortion from Ashley’s parents, Michael and Sharon Blackard.1 In fact, Plaintiffs Michael and Sharon Blackard were unaware that their daughter was pregnant. When they learned of their daughter’s abortion approximately six months later, after Ashley Blackard became pregnant again and dropped out of school, Plaintiffs Michael and Sharon Blackard filed a suit on their own and on Ashley’s behalf.2

In their diversity action, Plaintiffs alleged that Defendants violated the Parental Consent Act when Defendant Ma-nejwala performed an abortion on Ashley Blackard without her parents’ consent. Plaintiffs alleged that a violation of the Act provided Michael and Sharon Black-ard with a cause of action for tortious interference with family relations. Plaintiffs also claimed that Defendants committed common law battery and that a violation of the Act constituted prima facie evidence of the battery.

The Parental Consent Act, upon which Plaintiffs rely, requires that an abortion facility or physician obtain the written consent of the parent or legal guardian of a minor prior to performing an abortion on that minor. Tenn.Code Ann. § 37-10-303(a). The Act provided that in cases where the minor did not wish to seek the consent of the parent or legal guardian, [571]*571the minor could petition the juvenile court for waiver of the consent requirement. Tenn.Code Ann. § 37 — 10—303(b). A violation of the Act is a misdemeanor and pri-ma facie evidence of failure to obtain informed consent and of interference with family relations in appropriate civil actions. Tenn.Code. Ann. §§ 37-10-306 to -307.

At the time that Ashley Blackard obtained her abortion, however, there was an injunction in place enjoining the enforcement of the Parental Consent Act, particularly the judicial bypass procedure. The injunction resulted from an action filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the Honorable John Nixon, captioned Memphis Planned Parenthood, Inc. v. Sundquist, 2 F.Supp.2d 997 (M.D.Tenn.1997). This action involved a suit against the Governor of Tennessee, Don Sundquist, Attorney General John Knox Walkup, and the Administrative Director of the Courts (“ADC”) Charles Ferrell challenging the constitutionality of the Parental Consent Act. Id.

In Memphis Planned Parenthood, the plaintiff argued that the Parental Consent Act was unconstitutional because the judicial bypass procedure was flawed inasmuch as it presented substantial issues of the minor’s right of confidentiality and an expeditious disposition of her case. 2 F.Supp.2d at 1000. The plaintiff in that case filed a motion for a preliminary injunction which was granted by the district court. Id. at 1009. The preliminary injunction enjoined enforcement of the Parental Consent Act in toto, finding that severability was not an option. Id. The preliminary injunction, which was effective nunc pro tunc August 26, 1997, further provided:

It is FURTHER ORDERED that, pending further order of this Court, the defendants, their respective officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all other persons in active concert or participation with them, are hereby restrained and enjoined from enforcing Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 37-10-301 through 37-10-307, the Parental Consent for Abortions by Minors Act.

(J.A. at 67.)

The defendants appealed to this Court, which reversed the grant of the preliminary injunction on May 6, 1999. Memphis Planned Parenthood, Inc. v. Sundquist, 175 F.3d 456 (6th Cir.1999). After a petition for rehearing en banc was denied, the mandate of the Court reversing the grant of the preliminary injunction was issued on August 24,1999.

On remand to the district court, the Memphis Planned Parenthood parties entered into a joint temporary restraining order which prevented the enforcement of the Parental Consent Act until such time as the State of Tennessee could ensure that the bypass procedure was in accordance with the Act, the Constitution, and the opinion of this Court.

In their respective answers to Plaintiffs’ complaint, Defendants alleged that the Parental Consent Act was inapplicable to their case because the Memphis Planned Parenthood injunction prevented the enforcement of the Act at the time that Ashley Blackard obtained her abortion. The district court, however, granted a motion by Plaintiffs to strike Defendants’ defense insofar as it relied on the Memphis Planned Parenthood injunction. Defendants thereafter filed a joint motion to reconsider, contending that the Parental Consent Act could not be applied constitutionally to abortion procedures during the pendency of the Memphis Planned Parenthood case because the injunction halted the implementation of the judicial bypass procedure. The district court denied Defendants’ joint motion because, based on the record before it, it could not determine [572]*572whether the Tennessee courts were within the scope of the injunction.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
262 F.3d 568, 2001 WL 959007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blackard-v-memphis-area-medical-center-for-women-inc-ca6-2001.