Saint John's Church in the Wilderness v. Scott

2012 COA 72, 296 P.3d 273, 2012 WL 1435945, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 639
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 26, 2012
DocketNo. 11CA0508
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 2012 COA 72 (Saint John's Church in the Wilderness v. Scott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Saint John's Church in the Wilderness v. Scott, 2012 COA 72, 296 P.3d 273, 2012 WL 1435945, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 639 (Colo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge WEBB.

" 1 This appeal follows the remand ordered in St. John's in the Wilderness v. Scott, 194 P.3d 475 (Colo.App.2008) (St. John's I), which contains a detailed description of the evidence and procedural history. Because no new evidence was introduced on remand,1 this opinion provides only limited background. The order on remand restricting demonstrations in six buffer zones around the Church is modified and, as modified, affirmed.

I. Introduction

T2 Following the initial bench trial, the court resolved claims for private nuisance and conspiracy to commit private nuisance brought by plaintiffs, St. John's Church in the Wilderness and two parishioners, Charles I. Thompson and Charles W. Berberich, against defendants, Kenneth Tyler Seott and Clifton Powell. Defendants had demonstrated their opposition to abortion and homosexuality on the public street and sidewalk across the street from the Church, during an outdoor Palm Sunday service that began on Church property, by shouting and carrying signs, some of which included images of aborted fetuses.

T8 As relevant here, the court's factual findings included: Scott's voice was so loud that it substantially interfered with the outdoor services;2 the volume and nature of the demonstration, together with the graphic and gory nature of defendants' posters, caused several of those attending services to show "crying, trembling, fear, and anger"; children present were frightened by defendants' posters; and because of defendants' actions, 85 to 100 parishioners declined to participate in a second outdoor service.

T4 The court issued a permanent injune tion prohibiting defendants from engaging in the following acts:

i) At all times on all days, from entering the premises and property of St. John's Cathedral.
(i) During worship and preparation for worship, from a period beginning one-half hour before and ending one-half hour after a religious event or series of events, including but not limited to worship services on Sundays between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., from focused picketing, congregating, patrolling, demonstrating or entering that portion of the public right-of-way shown on [the checkered portions a [276]*276map of the Church and its surroundings; see St. John's I, 194 P.3d at 486].
(iii) During worship and preparation for worship, from a period beginning one-half hour before and ending one-half hour after a religious event or series of events, including but not limited to worship services on Sundays between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., from whistling, shouting, yelling, use of bullhorns, auto horns, sound amplification equipment or other sounds in areas [in checkered portion of map of the Church and its surroundings; see id.].
(iv) At all times on all days, from blocking, impeding, inhibiting, or in any other manner obstructing or interfering with access to, ingress into and egress from any building or parking lot owned by St. John's.
(v) At all times on all days, from encouraging, inciting, or securing other persons to commit any of the prohibited acts listed herein.

15 Following a lengthy discussion of government restrictions on "communicative activity" that occurred "[in public forums," St. John's I, 194 P.3d at 482-85, the division affirmed the judgments against defendants, and affirmed the injunction in part, vacated it in part, and remanded for further findings. It concluded that the threshold requirements for imposing injunctive relief had been met and that sufficient findings supported the prohibitions against obstructing access to the Church, violating the injunction through surrogates, and the time restrictions on defendants' picketing and noise making. However, because the record did not show that defendants' "mere presence" on Church property would cause irreparable harm, it vacated the prohibition against defendants' entry onto Church premises and property "at all times on all days." Finally, it concluded that further findings were necessary to determine whether the restrictions on action in the buffer zones burdened no more speech than necessary to serve a significant government interest.

I 6 On remand, the trial court modified the injunction as follows:

e In paragraph 3(i), the prohibition on defendants' entry onto Church premises or property "at all times on all days" (originally paragraph i) was deleted and replaced with a prohibition against entry "on days on which [defendants] engage in any conduct proscribed by this injunction."
e Paragraphs (ii) and (iii), proscribing focused picketing and noise- making, were deleted and replaced with a new paragraph 3(ii), prohibiting defendants from:
(a) shouting or yelling at or using any noise amplification device(s) in a manner reasonably calculated to: (1) disturb parishioners' ability to worship; (2) interfere with the plaintiff chureh's ability to use its property for worship services and/or worship related events; (8) cause parishioners to become physically upset; and (4) deter parishioners from participating in worship services and/or worship-related events on plaintiff church's property; and (b) displaying large posters or similar displays depicting gruesome images of mutilated fetuses or dead bodies in a manner reasonably likely to be viewed by children under 12 years of age attending worship services and/or worship-related events at plaintiff church.

(Emphasis added.) The three italicized phrases are the primary thrust of defendants' current appeal.

II. Law of the Case

T7 Defendants first contend St. John's I wrongly abridged their First Amendment rights, and because controlling law has changed since St. John's I was decided, this division need not follow it as law of the case. We decline defendants' invitation to revisit matters resolved in the trial court's initial order and upheld in St. John's I.

A. The Law of the Case Doctrine

18 "Conclusions of an appellate court on issues presented to it as well as rulings logically necessary to sustain such conclusions become the law of the case." Super Valu Stores, Inc. v. Dist. Court, 906 P.2d 72, 78-79 (Colo.1995). The law of the case doctrine protects parties from relitigat-ing settled issues, on the grounds that courts [277]*277generally "refuse to reopen what has been decided." People ex rel. Gallagher v. Dist. Court, 666 P.2d 550, 553 (Colo.1983) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). It ree-ognizes that "litigation must end somewhere." People v. Roybal, 672 P.2d 1003, 1005 n. 6 (Colo.1983) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

19 In proceedings on remand, a trial court must follow the pronouncements of the appellate court. Kuhn v. State, 897 P.2d 792, 795 (Colo.1995). In a later appeal, however, when the decision in question issued from the same appellate court, a different division of that court may exercise its discretion and decline to apply the law of the case doctrine, but only "if it determines that the previous decision is no longer sound because of changed conditions or law, or legal or factual error, or if the prior decision would result in manifest injustice."3 Vashone-Caruso v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2012 COA 72, 296 P.3d 273, 2012 WL 1435945, 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/saint-johns-church-in-the-wilderness-v-scott-coloctapp-2012.