Horizon Health Center v. Felicissimo

659 A.2d 1387, 282 N.J. Super. 323
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJuly 5, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 659 A.2d 1387 (Horizon Health Center v. Felicissimo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Horizon Health Center v. Felicissimo, 659 A.2d 1387, 282 N.J. Super. 323 (N.J. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

282 N.J. Super. 323 (1995)
659 A.2d 1387

HORIZON HEALTH CENTER, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,
v.
ANTHONY J. FELICISSIMO, HELPERS OF GOD'S PRECIOUS INFANTS, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued May 31, 1995.
Decided July 5, 1995.

*324 Before Judges PRESSLER, LANDAU and NEWMAN.

Richard J. Traynor argued the cause for appellant (Legal Center for Defense of Life, Inc., attorneys; Mr. Traynor, on the brief).

Cynthia V. Fitzgerald argued the cause for respondent (Chasen, Leyner, Tarrant & Lamparello, attorneys; Ms. Fitzgerald, on the brief).

The opinion of the court was delivered by LANDAU, J.A.D.

This appeal by defendants Anthony J. Felicissimo and Helpers of God's Precious Infants was taken from a September 21, 1994 order of the Chancery Division, Hudson County, that issued upon the New Jersey Supreme Court's remand for partial modification of a 1991 injunction which had imposed certain restrictions upon the manner and place of anti-abortion protests by defendants at a family-planning clinic operated by plaintiff Horizon Health Center in Jersey City.

We conclude that the modifications did not sufficiently comply with the Supreme Court's directions on remand. Exercising our original jurisdiction, R. 2:10-5, we affirm the order under review, subject to the further modifications set forth below.

I.

The underlying facts and history are extensively set forth in Horizon Health Center v. Felicissimo, 135 N.J. 126, 132-36, 638 A.2d 1260 (1994), affirming as modified 263 N.J. Super. 200, 204-11, 622 A.2d 891 (App.Div. 1993).

Finding that the injunction was content neutral, our Supreme Court noted that the trial court made specific findings that *325 defendants had blocked the access of potential patients to the facility and disrupted street traffic, and that the purpose of the injunction is to allow defendants to express their views in "a manner that does not interfere with or disrupt the Center, its patients, or its staff." Id. at 142-43, 638 A.2d 1260. In evaluating the reasonableness of the time, place, and manner restrictions of the injunction, the Court concluded that while an injunction was warranted, the manner restrictions required even more modification than had been provided by our opinion. Id. at 148-49, 638 A.2d 1260. Specifically, for so much of paragraph one of the injunction as prohibited defendants

from gathering, parading, patrolling and picketing the property of [the] Center in such a manner as to disrupt, intimidate or harass the staff, employees or patients or persons accompanying patients of [the] Center and specifically from using obscene or abusive language or insults or epithets directed at [the Center]'s medical and executive staff or at patients or persons accompanying patients desiring to use their professional services and at their employees, and refrain from making loud accusations and shouting statements which are abusive at the aforesaid staff; physicians and/or patients and persons accompanying patients;

it substituted the following:

from screaming, chanting, singing, speaking, yelling, or producing noise in any other manner, in a volume that interferes with the provision of medical services within the Center.
[Id. at 149-50, 638 A.2d 1260.]

The Court upheld the prohibition against defendants "from invading or trespassing upon the property of the [Center] ...", and "from intentionally interfering with the flow of traffic into and out of [the] Center's premises by blocking and/or obstructing ingress into or egress from same." Id. at 150, 638 A.2d 1260. Those restrictions, it was held, were "sufficiently narrowly tailored to serve the significant government interests of preservation of health and the safety of medical procedures, protection of private property, and public safety." Ibid.

What prompted the Supreme Court to further modify the injunction, however, was the absence from the record of a history of "threats, intimidation, and assault of clinic personnel and clients...." or other indicia of violence. Id. at 151, 638 A.2d 1260 (citation omitted). Thus, it determined, "that rather than prohibiting *326 all expressional activities on the sidewalk directly in front of the Center, the injunction should have allowed a limited, controlled form of expression near the entrance while restraining the troublesome mass of protestors to a location across the street." Id. at 152, 638 A.2d 1260.

Accordingly, the remand called for the trial court to fashion a fact-sensitive injunction "that permits some form of expression by defendants near the Center." Ibid.

More specifically, although we have no doubt that a "place" restriction imposing a general buffer zone (requiring the bulk of the demonstrators to remain across the street) is appropriate in this case, we cannot say precisely what limited form of expression in front of the center would be feasible. The injunction should give consideration to the right of the protestors to make their presence known and to the role of sidewalk counselling in that process, while at the same time protecting against any harassment of the patients or others who wish to enter the clinic. In crafting its restrictions the trial court may find guidance in the decisions of other jurisdictions that have imposed on clinic protestors injunctions less restrictive than those that the trial court initially imposed here. See supra at 151-53, 638 A.2d at 1272-73.
[Id. at 153, 638 A.2d 1260.]

The injunctions issued in the out-of-state decisions referred to by the Court included provision for a 500 foot buffer zone within which two people could sit at a table alongside the clinic to distribute literature and offer counselling, allowing six peaceful picketers within the zone[1]; a prohibition against trespassing on, blocking, and obstructing access to a clinic, and prohibiting abusing persons physically, but allowing quiet sidewalk counselling of a non-threatening nature[2]; a requirement for dual speech-free zones of fifteen feet around entrances, people, and vehicles, but allowing two sidewalk counsellors who must stop counselling when the targeted person indicates a desire to be left alone[3]; and the *327 exclusion of peaceful picketers from a twenty-five foot "bubble zone" around a clinic.[4]

The Court made clear that it envisioned an injunction which provided "reasonable opportunity" to confront or intercept willing and unwilling listeners by permitting "some form of expression near the clinic's entrance" in which defendants will be able "to address staff, patients, and visitors in a civil manner in front of the Center and they may continue to pray, to carry placards, and to express themselves in other ways across the street...." Id. at 153, 638 A.2d 1260.

II.

The present injunctive order, as revised upon remand, provides that:

1. Anthony J. Felicissimo and the Helpers of God's Precious Infants and/or persons and organizations affiliated, acting in concert or participation with, or on behalf of Anthony J.

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Related

Horizon Health Center v. Felicissimo
722 A.2d 611 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
659 A.2d 1387, 282 N.J. Super. 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/horizon-health-center-v-felicissimo-njsuperctappdiv-1995.