Fardig v. Municipality of Anchorage

785 P.2d 911, 1990 Alas. App. LEXIS 10, 1990 WL 9064
CourtCourt of Appeals of Alaska
DecidedFebruary 2, 1990
DocketA-2900, A-2901
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 785 P.2d 911 (Fardig v. Municipality of Anchorage) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fardig v. Municipality of Anchorage, 785 P.2d 911, 1990 Alas. App. LEXIS 10, 1990 WL 9064 (Ala. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

COATS, Judge.

Kristine M. Fardig, Dorothy M. Bassett, Diane M. Metcalf and Carol I. Dvorak (hereinafter “Fardig”) pled no contest to trespass, Anchorage Municipal Code (AMC) 08.30.010(A), preserving the right to appeal the denial of their motions to dismiss. Cooksey v. State, 524 P.2d 1251 (Alaska 1974). We affirm.

On June 10, 1988, Fardig was in the parking lot of the Alaska Women’s Health Services’ building distributing pro-life literature to patrons of the facility. Fardig’s arrest resulted after the director of the facility, the clinic coordinator and the police requested Fardig to leave the premises and she declined to do so.

Fardig contends she should have been charged under AMC 09.36.240, 1 the parking lot ordinance, rather than AMC 08.30.010, 2 the general trespass ordinance. *913 In support of her contention, Fardig cites case law which provides that where both a general criminal provision and a more specific criminal provision punish the same conduct, the specific provision applies and the defendant may be charged only under that provision. See, e.g., Busic v. United States, 446 U.S. 398, 100 S.Ct. 1747, 64 L.Ed.2d 381 (1980) (where accused shot at federal officers who were trying to arrest him, statute which prescribed an enhanced sentence for a defendant’s use of a deadly weapon in assaulting a federal officer applied rather than statute which prescribed an enhanced sentence for a defendant’s use of a gun in committing a federal felony). In Fardig’s view, she should have been charged under AMC 09.36.240 because the provision applies to parking lots and is therefore clearly the more specific of the two statutes.-

Fardig’s arguments are unfounded. In each of the cases cited by Fardig, the accused’s conduct violated the language of both the general and the specific provisions in question. 3 On the other hand, the complaint specifies only that Fardig “failed to leave the premises of the Alaska Women’s Resource Center (sic) after being verbally requested [to do so].” Fardig is not alleged to have violated any rules set forth in the sign posted on the building. In fact, Fardig concedes on appeal that her conduct did not violate the commands of the sign. For this reason, the cases upon which Far-dig relies are simply inapposite. We can find no authority which requires that the municipality charge Fardig with trespass in a parking lot simply because the trespass took place there.

Fardig next contends her conviction cannot stand because she was exercising her right to freedom of speech at the time of her arrest. Fardig adds that state action is involved because the parking lot is quasi-public property in that the police enforce handicap parking regulations and other ordinances in the lot, the clinic is subject to state and federal regulations, and the clinic accepts Medicare and Medicaid funds.

The first amendment generally does not guarantee freedom of speech against private infringement; instead, the amendment *914 protects only against abridgement by the federal or state government. In only one case has the United States Supreme Court carved out an exception to this general rule and concluded that an entity’s characteristics made it sufficiently “public” in nature to trigger the application of the freedom of speech guarantee. In Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501, 66 S.Ct. 276, 90 L.Ed. 265 (1946), Grace Marsh distributed religious literature, in contravention of a local ordinance, on the streets of a company town, Chickasaw, owned by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation. Marsh contended the ordinance violated the first amendment of the United States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court concluded that the private ownership interest of the corporation did not defeat the constitutional claim:

We do not agree that the corporation’s property interests settle the question. The State urges in effect that the corporation’s right to control the inhabitants of Chickasaw is coextensive with the right of a homeowner to regulate the conduct of his guests. We cannot accept that contention. Ownership does not always mean absolute dominion. The more an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it.

Id. at 505-06, 66 S.Ct. at 278 (footnote omitted). The court emphasized that the corporation “[did] not function differently from any other town” and that, as a result, the public had a strong interest in maintaining open and free communication channels. Id. at 507-08, 66 S.Ct. at 279.

Further attempts to trigger the application of the first amendment guarantee in the face of alleged quasi-public private infringement have been rejected by the United States Supreme Court. For example, in Lloyd Corporation, Ltd. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551, 92 S.Ct. 2219, 33 L.Ed.2d 131 (1972), the court held that the private owner of a 50-acre shopping center may enjoin political leafletting which is unrelated to the shopping center’s operations. The court stated “property [does not] lose its private character merely because the public is generally invited to use it for designated purposes. Few would argue that a freestanding store, with abutting parking space for customers, assumes significant public attributes merely because the public is invited to shop there.” 407 U.S. at 569, 92 S.Ct. at 2229. Before the owner of private property can be subject to the first amendment, the private property must “assume to some significant degree the functional attributes of public property devoted to public use.” Central Hardware Company v. National Labor Relations Board, 407 U.S. 539, 546-47, 92 S.Ct. 2238, 2242-43, 33 L.Ed.2d 122 (1972) (private owner of 70,000 square foot hardware store permitted to enjoin solicitation on the store’s parking lot); cf. Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715, 81 S.Ct. 856, 6 L.Ed.2d 45 (1961) (privately owned restaurant under lease in a parking garage financed by public funds and owned by state subject to fourteenth amendment guarantee).

These authorities make it clear that the Alaska Women’s Health Services Center is not subject to the application of the first amendment guarantee. The testimony at the evidentiary hearing established that Alaska Women’s Health Services is a small, privately owned and operated health service commercial enterprise for profit. The facility is not even remotely similar to the company town in Marsh.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
785 P.2d 911, 1990 Alas. App. LEXIS 10, 1990 WL 9064, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fardig-v-municipality-of-anchorage-alaskactapp-1990.