Rennie v. Klein

481 F. Supp. 552, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7817
District Court, D. New Jersey·Decided December 21, 1979·No. Civ. A. 77-2624·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

OPINION

BROTMAN, District Judge.

This is a motion to stay the enforcement of the court’s order of September 14, 1979 in the above-captioned case, reported at 476 F.Supp. 1294 (D.N.J.1979), pending appeal of the court’s decision to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. This court is authorized to hear this motion by Fed.R.Civ.P. 62(c), and a party is normally required to apply to the district court first before he may apply to the court of appeals or an individual circuit judge for a stay pending appeal. Fed.R.App.P. 8(a).

This case has a long history, which is amply discussed in the court’s prior opinions, 476 F.Supp. 1294 (1979) and 462 F.Supp. 1131 (D.N.J.1978). Therefore, instead of restating the entire procedural history of this case, the court will focus upon the facts relevant to this particular motion.

On July 13, 1979, plaintiff and intervenors filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against the defendants. The court held hearings on this motion for several days, concluding them on August 9, 1979. Before issuing its ruling on the motion for a preliminary injunction, the court advised the litigants of its intended action and sought their comments on its proposed order. It explained the considerations which shaped the order in its September 14, 1979 opinion:

The court has attempted to closely tailor its order in this case to the clear violations of privacy and due process engendered by the policies of defendants. The order is designed to interfere with hospital operation as little as possible while still guaranteeing a realistic opportunity for patients to exercise their qualified right to refuse treatment. The court has also tried to include in its decree those ideas discussed by defendants themselves, but never fully implemented, which, when put into full effect, would satisfy constitutional requirements.

476 F.Supp., at 1311. The court made its preliminary injunction decree effective January 7, 1980, with the exception of Part F, *554 which mandates the submission of monthly reports by the defendants on the implementation of the court’s order, as well as certain administrative guidelines. The defendants have complied with the reporting requirements of the court’s order, and these reports have documented the extent of their implementation of the rest of the order. The court has carefully reviewed and relied upon these materials in considering the defendants’ current motion.

In its September 14, 1979 opinion, the court made the following analysis of the merits of the motion for a preliminary injunction:

Four factors are considered in the application for a preliminary injunction: (1) whether the moving party has shown that it is likely to prevail on the merits, (2) whether the movant has demonstrated that he would be irreparably harmed if the preliminary injunction is denied, (3) whether the grant of the injunction would harm other interested parties to a greater extent than it would benefit movant, and (4) whether the public interest would be served. A. O. Smith Corp. v. F.T.C., 530 F.2d 515, 525 (3rd Cir. 1976).
After 17 days of hearings, the plaintiffs have clearly demonstrated a likelihood of prevailing on the merits on the recertified classes. It is also clear that if defendants are not enjoined plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed by the transient discomfort and permanent injury caused by medication. The court finds that prevention of these harms outweighs the additional administrative costs the order may impose on the state. Finally, protection of plaintiff’s constitutional rights is indisputably in the public interest.

Id.

The defendants’ present motion asks this court to evaluate similar factors in determining whether to stay the enforcement of the order pending appeal. An application for a stay pending appeal is governed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 62(c), which provides in pertinent part:

When an appeal is taken from an interlocutory or final judgment granting, dissolving, or denying an injunction, the court in its discretion may suspend, modify, restore, or grant an injunction during the pendency of the appeal upon such terms . . . as it considers proper for the security of the rights of the adverse party.

The court’s resolution of a Rule 62(c) motion is guided by four basic factors. Although different courts have not used completely identical language, they have agreed upon the list of factors, which were recently described by a district court in this circuit in Evans v. Buchanan, 435 F.Supp. 832, 841 (D.Del.1977):

A motion for a stay is addressed to the sound discretion of the Court. Coppedge v. Franklin County Board of Education, 293 F.Supp. 356, 362 (E.D.N.C.1968). The burden of [the moving parties] is to make: (1) a showing that they will suffer irreparable injury if the stay is denied; (2) a strong showing they likely will succeed on the merits of their appeal; (3) a showing the plaintiffs will not be substantially harmed by the stay; and (4) a showing no harm will be done to the public interest. Reserve Mining Co. v. United States, 498 F.2d 1073, 1076-1077 (8th Cir.), application to vacate stay denied, 419 U.S. 802, 95 S.Ct. 287, 42 L.Ed.2d 33 (1974).

In view of the similarity of the standards governing decisions to issue preliminary injunctions and to stay their enforcement pending appeal, the defendants’ motion to stay pending appeal seems to be defective in certain crucial respects. The court will now examine these potential deficiencies.

First, the court notes that in ruling upon the motion for a preliminary injunction it concluded that the moving parties “have clearly demonstrated a likelihood of prevailing on the merits.” Rennie, 476 F.Supp., at 1311. This appears to be inconsistent with the requirement that the court staying enforcement of an injunction conclude that the moving party is likely to prevail on the merits.

*555 The defendants have responded to this argument by asserting that the concept “likely to prevail” has a different meaning in the two different contexts, and have cited two cases in support of their claim that they are likely to prevail as that term is applied to motions for stays pending appeal. The first case cited by the defendants is Evans v. Buchanan, 435 F.Supp. 832 (D.Del.1977), which involved a motion to stay the district court’s proceedings in school desegregation cases pending a decision by the United States Supreme Court upon the movant’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Although the court in Evans

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Rennie v. Klein, 481 F. Supp. 552, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7817 (D.N.J. 1979).

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