Lloyd Corporation v. Whiffen

773 P.2d 1294, 307 Or. 674
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMay 9, 1989
DocketCC A8512-08127; CA A38839; SC S35170
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 773 P.2d 1294 (Lloyd Corporation v. Whiffen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lloyd Corporation v. Whiffen, 773 P.2d 1294, 307 Or. 674 (Or. 1989).

Opinions

[677]*677JONES, J.

The issue is whether the owner of a privately owned shopping center open to the public for commercial purposes may obtain a declaration of rights and an injunction against persons entering the shopping center to obtain petition signatures; or whether the defendant-solicitors have a right to solicit petition signatures in the shopping mall without plaintiffs permission.

The circuit court ordered that “defendants are hereby restrained and enjoined from entering upon plaintiffs private property to exercise their expressions of opinion or to gather signatures in the initiative and referendum process without plaintiffs permission or consent.” The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the order violated defendants’ rights of expression under Article I, section 8, of the Oregon Constitution, and that defendants could exercise their free expression rights in the shopping center subject to reasonable time, place, and manner regulations. Lloyd Corporation v. Whiffen, 89 Or App 629, 750 P2d 1157 (1988). We affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals, but on different grounds.

FACTS

Most of the facts are undisputed.1 Lloyd Center (Center) is a retail shopping center located in Portland. Plaintiff is the owner of fee title to the land the Center occupies. Five public streets cross the Center and at least six other public streets run partly into and around the Center. In total, there are more than 66 blocks of publicly owned sidewalks in the Center. There is also an adjacent public park. The privately owned areas of the Center contain stores, professional and business offices, covered walkways, and open and covered areas for automobile parking. At least nine stores open directly onto or within a few feet of public streets. There are public bus stops on public streets adjacent to the public sidewalks in the Center. All entrances to and exits from the Center cross public sidewalks.

The privately owned mall and walkways are designed, [678]*678decorated, and managed to promote retail business, to please plaintiffs tenants and their customers, clients, and patients, and to encourage prospective customers to come to the Center where they may view and buy merchandise or partake of services. Gardens, flower beds, statuary, murals, various other works of art, benches, elevators and escalators, stairways and bridges, and directories and information booths adorn the private mall and walkways. Recorded music is broadcast in the ice rink and throughout the Center as part of the desired atmosphere. Plaintiff and plaintiffs tenants pay the entire cost of maintaining the privately owned common areas in the Center, which exceeds $1 million per year. All this is intended to create a pleasant environment conducive to purchasing merchandise or services.

Since the inception of its business in 1960, plaintiff without discrimination has attempted to prohibit solicitation or distribution of political leaflets or petitioning in the privately owned mall and walkways of the Center. Neither tenants of the Center nor nontenants are permitted to engage in any such activity. At each of 25 entrances to the private areas, plaintiff has embedded signs in the walkways stating: “NOTICE — Areas in the Lloyd Center used by the public are not public ways but are for the use of Lloyd Center tenants and the public transacting business with them. Permission to use said areas may be revoked at any time. Lloyd Corporation, Ltd.”

The record supports plaintiffs contention that it attempts to limit access of persons whose purpose is not to shop or “do business with” plaintiff or its tenants. It is obvious, however, that plaintiff would not exclude a person who comes only to meet an employee or a shopper at the Center or persons who simply walk through the mall for exercise. Plaintiffs signs tell the public that the open areas of the Center (1) are not public ways, (2) are for the use of the Center’s tenants and the public transacting business with them, and (3) that plaintiff may revoke permission to use the areas at any time. They do not purport to deny entry to casual visitors. They do not imply that someone crossing from one street to another through the Center’s public area is a trespasser. But one thing is clear: plaintiff makes no open-ended invitation to the public to use the Center as a forum to debate public issues.

In December 1985, defendants entered the Center to [679]*679gather signatures on three initiative petitions. The parties agreed that “[e]mployees of the plaintiff have requested defendants and others who seek to gather initiative petition signatures to cease their activities on the privately owned portions of Lloyd Center and have asked those persons to go to public sidewalks or other public areas to obtain signatures.” After this request, defendants continued their activity and declared that they would continue to do so unless arrested or enjoined. Accordingly, plaintiff commenced this litigation for an injunction and for a declaratory judgment.

ANALYSIS

I.

From the beginning, the parties have treated this as a constitutional case. Plaintiff claimed that a refusal to enjoin defendants’ activity would constitute a taking of its property. Defendants counterclaimed for a declaration that they have a “right” under the Oregon Constitution to gather initiative petition signatures in the Center.2 Judicial opinions elsewhere take up the constitutional debate, displaying deep divisions about the correct analysis.3 We will not join in that debate, [680]*680however, without first examining the parties’ rights on a sub-constitutional level. Our practice is to refrain from constitutional holdings unless ordinary legal principles cannot resolve the dispute. State v. Edgmand, 306 Or 535, 538-39, 761 P2d 505 (1988); Planned Parenthood Assn. v. Dept. of Human Res., 297 Or 562, 564, 687 P2d 785 (1984).4

A court applying a common-law rule or fashioning an equitable order must observe constitutional principles as much as a legislative or administrative body. See Hall v. The May Dept. Stores, 292 Or 131, 145-46, 637 P2d 126 (1981); Wheeler v. Green, 286 Or 99, 117-19, 593 P2d 777 (1979); Crouch v. Central Labor Council, 134 Or 612, 622, 293 P 729 (1930). Although court involvement may trigger constitutional analysis, it does not prove a constitutional violation. Thus, in deciding this case we will discuss constitutional provisions and interpretations without necessarily deciding any constitutional right or violation. Whether a judicial decision of a private claim invades constitutional rights depends on whether the remedy fashioned by the court invades constitutional rights. The same judicial remedy — for instance, an injunction — may be permissible in one case but not in another. In this case, we conclude on a subconstitutional level that plaintiff is not entitled to the broad injunction it sought and received.

II.

Plaintiff seeks an injunction against defendants for unreasonably interfering with plaintiffs use of its property. Plaintiff has established that defendants are on plaintiffs property without permission; indeed, defendants are transgressing a direct prohibition. Plaintiffs success in making this [681]*681demonstration does not, however, automatically prove its entitlement to the injunction granted by the trial court.

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Bluebook (online)
773 P.2d 1294, 307 Or. 674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lloyd-corporation-v-whiffen-or-1989.