Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, Inc., etc. v. MMB Properties, etc.

211 So. 3d 918, 42 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 204, 2017 WL 709484, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 370
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedFebruary 23, 2017
DocketSC15-1655
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 211 So. 3d 918 (Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, Inc., etc. v. MMB Properties, etc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, Inc., etc. v. MMB Properties, etc., 211 So. 3d 918, 42 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 204, 2017 WL 709484, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 370 (Fla. 2017).

Opinions

PARIENTE, J.

The conflict issue presented in this case involves the standard for modifying or dissolving a temporary injunction. The Fifth District Court of Appeal “acknowledge^] conflict with the Third and Fourth Dis-trictfs]” as to whether a party moving to modify or dissolve a temporary injunction must establish “changed circumstances.” Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando v. MMB Properties, 171 So.3d 125, 128 & n.3 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015).1 We conclude that requiring a party to meet the burden of proving changed circumstances even when a party shows clear misapprehension of the facts or clear legal error is incompatible with the equity principles underlying injunctive relief and hold that a trial court abuses its discretion in not modifying or dissolving a temporary injunction in such an instance, regardless of whether the movant shows changed circumstances.

After resolving the conflict issue, we also review the temporary injunction entered by the trial court in this case and conclude that the order enjoining Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando (“Planned Parenthood”) from performing certain activities was not based on competent, substantial evidence. Accordingly, we quash the Fifth District’s decision below to the extent it affirmed the trial court’s temporary injunction. See Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, 171 So.3d at 130-31.

FACTS AND BACKGROUND

Oak Commons is a medical complex consisting of approximately eleven acres located near the Osceola Regional Medical Center. In 1986, the developer of Oak Commons executed a Declaration of Restrictions (“the Declaration”) that was duly recorded and expressly ran with the land. The Declaration covenanted the following:

The property described herein shall not be used for the following activities without the prior written permission of [the developer], which shall be granted only in its sole and unfettered discretion, unless ancillary and incidental to a physician’s practice of medicine:
1. An Outpatient Surgical Center
2. An emergency medical center.
3. A Diagnostic Imaging Center which includes the following radiographic testing: Fluroscopy [sic], Plane Film Radiography, Computerized Tomography (CT), Ultrasound, Radiation Therapy, Mamography [sic] and Breast Diagnostics, Nuclear Medicine Testing and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Planned Parenthood purchased the property located at 610 Oak Commons Boulevard (“Kissimmee Health Center”) in December 2013. Respondent, MMB Properties, is a general partnership that has operated a cardiology practice in Oak Commons since 1996. In June 2014, approximately one month before Planned Parenthood opened the Kissimmee [921]*921Health Center, MMB Properties filed a single-count complaint alleging that Planned Parenthood’s use of the property violated the Declaration. The complaint sought a permanent injunction preventing Planned Parenthood from performing outpatient surgical procedures, which MMB Properties alleged included abortions, and from providing emergency medical services, which allegedly included the provision of the “Morning After Pill.” The complaint was supported by an affidavit of Dr. John Massey, a cardiologist and one of the general partners of MMB Properties, as well as a zoning verification letter that Planned Parenthood sent to the City of Kissimmee inquiring whether it could operate an “Out Patient Surgical Center” at the Kissimmee Health Center and an application Planned Parenthood submitted to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to operate an abortion clinic.

Soon after MMB Properties filed the complaint, MMB Properties moved to temporarily enjoin Planned Parenthood from “performing abortions, providing outpatient surgical services, or providing emergency medical services, including emergency contraception (including administering the ‘Morning After Pill’), until this lawsuit is fully resolved on the merits.”2 Planned Parenthood filed its answer, affirmative defenses, and a memoranda of law in opposition to the complaint and MMB Properties’ temporary injunction motion, along with an affidavit of its then-CEO, Jenna Tosh. Two business days after Planned Parenthood opened the Kissimmee Health Center to the public, the trial court held a hearing on MMB Properties’ motion for a temporary injunction. At the hearing, Ms. Tosh and Martha Haynie, a board member and the treasurer of Planned Parenthood, testified on Planned Parenthood’s behalf. Dr. Massey and Dr. Jose Fernandez, a family physician who actively opposes abortions, testified on behalf of MMB Properties.

Ms. Tosh testified that Planned Parenthood was a nonprofit organization that intended to perform surgical abortions at its then recently opened Kissimmee Health Center. Ms. Tosh further testified that abortions represent less than one percent of the total number of services Planned Parenthood provides and do not constitute a significant portion of the services Planned Parenthood intended to provide at the Kissimmee Health Center. Rather, Ms. Tosh testified that Planned Parenthood provides all FDA-approved methods of contraception, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and a “whole scope of primary preventative care for women.” Ms. Tosh further testified that all of its services, including surgical abortions, could be performed in its building without having a surgical suite.

Testimony during the hearing also adduced that Planned Parenthood employed a salaried medical director, Dr. Merri Morris, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist (“OBGYN”), as well as four other licensed physicians who were independent contractors. Ms. Tosh testified that Dr. Morris would soon begin working exclusively for the Kissimmee Health Center. Ms. Tosh also testified that while surgical abortions were routinely referred to as surgery, she did “not agree that surgical abortions entails what is usually thought of as surgery.” Additionally, Ms. Tosh testified that Planned Parenthood [922]*922was independent of the national organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Ms. Haynie testified that, as treasurer of Planned Parenthood, she was familiar with the costs that the organization incurred in establishing the Kissimmee Health Center. Specifically, Ms. Haynie testified that if Planned Parenthood were required to move its operations from the Kissimmee Health Center to another location, that process would take approximately eighteen months and cost Planned Parenthood slightly over $700,000 in lost revenue.

Dr. Massey testified that abortion is a surgical procedure and that the Declaration’s restrictive covenants applied equally to his practice as it did to Planned Parenthood’s. For instance, Dr. Massey testified that his practice could not conduct cardiac catheterizations because they are considered a surgical procedure. Dr. Fernandez testified that surgical abortions are surgical procedures because they involve “instrumentation, a woman usually under some form of anesthesia, and the extraction of bodily fluid and tissues.” Approximately one week after the hearing, the trial court granted MMB Properties’ motion for a temporary injunction, finding that MMB Properties had a substantial likelihood of showing that performing surgical abortions would violate the Declaration and that such procedures are not incidental to a physician’s practice of medicine.

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Bluebook (online)
211 So. 3d 918, 42 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 204, 2017 WL 709484, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/planned-parenthood-of-greater-orlando-inc-etc-v-mmb-properties-etc-fla-2017.