Opinion ID: 519156
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Application of The Unclean Hands Doctrine

Text: 45 The first of the two issues raised by the Center on its appeal challenges the limited injunctive relief awarded by the district court. The district court ruled that the Center was precluded from obtaining injunctive relief on any charge other than trespass because of the unclean hands doctrine. Although the district court enjoined Defendants from trespassing on the Center's property or the private parking lot next to the Center, and barred Defendants from obstructing the entrances to those premises, it gave no injunctive relief with respect to the acts of harassment and intimidation of the Center's employees and patients which provided the evidentiary basis for the jury's liability verdicts on the RICO and interference with contract claims. 46 In its discussion of the need for injunctive relief, the district court stated, The spirited nature of [Defendants'] views permits no remorse or regret for their actions. No evidence produced at trial suggests that their unlawful modes of protest will cease. In fact, the evidence suggests precisely the opposite. 665 F.Supp. 1152. We can think of no reason why this finding, although made in the context of the district court's trespass discussion, is not equally applicable to Defendants' other activities. Nonetheless, the court refused to grant the additional injunctive relief requested by the Center because it concluded that section 3214(c) of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act had been violated because one of the Center's doctors testified that remains from those fetuses aborted in the second trimester were inspected for completeness by a pathology expert who was not board certified or board eligible. 11 47 The district court held that the Center was charged with knowledge of the doctor's failure to comply with the Act's requirements, and that therefore the Center engaged in inequitable conduct [which] bars injunctive relief under RICO and interference with contract causes of action, 665 F.Supp. 1157-58. 48 In the course of making this ruling, the district court felt compelled to consider and rule upon the constitutionality of section 3214(c), although the constitutionality of the Pennsylvania statute was not an issue in this case and was then pending before another judge of the same court. Consequently, on appeal here the parties have devoted extensive briefing to this issue, the Attorney General has submitted a brief seeking to uphold the court's ruling on this issue, and the Center and some amici argue that this section is not operative. See note 12 infra. The parties' preoccupation with the constitutionality of section 3214(c) represents a diversion to collateral issues. 49 Ordinarily, an abuse of discretion standard applies to our review of the district court's application of the unclean hands doctrine. However, the parameters of the unclean hands doctrine implicate a matter of law. 50 As this court has explained, the equitable doctrine of unclean hands is not a matter of 'defense' to the defendant. Gaudiosi v. Mellon, 269 F.2d 873, 882 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 361 U.S. 902, 80 S.Ct. 211, 4 L.Ed.2d 157 (1959). Rather, in applying it courts are concerned primarily with their own integrity, id., and with avoiding becoming  'the abettor of iniquity.'  Monsanto Co. v. Rohm & Haas Co., 456 F.2d 592, 598 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 407 U.S. 934, 92 S.Ct. 2463, 32 L.Ed.2d 817 (1972) (citations omitted). Thus, the doctrine is to be applied only where some unconscionable act of one coming for relief has immediate and necessary relation to the equity that he seeks in respect of the matter in litigation. Keystone Driller Co. v. General Excavator Co., 290 U.S. 240, 245-46, 54 S.Ct. 146, 147-48, 78 L.Ed. 293 (1933). 51 The same principle applies under Pennsylvania law. See In Re Estate of Pedrick, 505 Pa. 530, 544, 482 A.2d 215, 222 (1984). Pennsylvania's Supreme Court has stated that the unclean hands doctrine is not to be applied to collateral matters not directly affecting the equitable relations which exist between the parties. Shapiro v. Shapiro, 415 Pa. 503, 507, 204 A.2d 266, 268 (1964). 52 Even if there had been a violation of the requirement of section 3214(c) relating to examination of fetal tissue by one of the physicians practicing at the Center, an issue we do not reach, 12 such a violation is at most collateral to the matter involved in this lawsuit. Section 3214(c) is a technical provision aimed at policing compliance with the now inoperative nonviability certification requirement of section 3211. 13 It has no connection at all to the Defendants' actions which the jury found violated both federal and state law. 53 A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision is illustrative of that Court's application of the unclean hands doctrine. In In re Estate of Pedrick, 505 Pa. 530, 544, 482 A.2d 215, 222 (1984), the Court held that unclean hands barred an attorney seeking to recover against an estate where the attorney sought to secure a benefit from the very conduct which the accepted standards of the profession preclude. In contrast, in this case, the Center's alleged failure to insure that the pathologist who examined the fetal tissue was Board certified or Board eligible is not sufficiently, if at all, related to the particular matter in litigation, Shapiro, 415 Pa. at 507, 204 A.2d at 268, to warrant application of the unclean hands doctrine to preclude granting the Center effective equitable relief from the Defendants' harassment of the Center, its employees, and its patients. Because the unclean hands doctrine can be applied only to conduct relating to the matter in litigation, we conclude that the district court erred in applying the unclean hands doctrine in this situation. 54 Defendants argue that further injunctive relief cannot be awarded under RICO because injunctive relief is not available to private parties under that statute's civil provisions. This is a question of first impression for this court and remains an open question in most other courts. See Trane Co. v. O'Connor Sec., 718 F.2d 26, 28 (2d Cir.1983) (expressing serious doubt about availability of injunctive relief in private civil RICO cases); Dan River, Inc. v. Icahn, 701 F.2d 278, 290 (4th Cir.1983) (same); Bennett v. Berg, 685 F.2d 1053, 1064 (8th Cir.1982) (hinting that injunctive relief may be available). But see Religious Technology Center v. Wollersheim, 796 F.2d 1076, 1077 (9th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1103, 107 S.Ct. 1336, 94 L.Ed.2d 187 (1987) (injunctive relief not available); In Re Fredeman Litigation, 843 F.2d 821, 828-30 (5th Cir.1988) (suggesting approval of Wollersheim ). At oral argument the Center acknowledged that all the injunctive relief it seeks could be granted under its state law claim of interference with contractual relations, and therefore we will not reach to decide the RICO issue. 55 We see no impediment to basing injunctive relief on the interference with contractual relations verdict. The Center pleaded and proved that Defendants embarked on a willful campaign to use fear, harassment, intimidation and force against the Center through targeting its employees so that they would, and some did, sever their employment at the Center. Employees testified that they were even harassed at their homes and that their children were afraid. Defendants stress that the jury found no damages on its interference with contractual relations verdict. Of course, the fact the Center could not show damage on this claim or that not all the Center's employees have been sufficiently frightened so as to terminate their contractual relations with the Center does not preclude injunctive relief designed to prevent future harm. 56 Defendants argue that the district court is limited in granting injunctive relief under the interference with contractual relations claim to enjoining the three Defendants found liable under that charge. However, injunctions under Pennsylvania law are commonly entered against defendants and all persons acting in concert with them. See, e.g., Adler, Barish, Daniels, Levin & Creskoff v. Epstein, 482 Pa. 416, 422, 393 A.2d 1175, 1178 (1978) (reinstating permanent injunction containing this language in intentional interference with contract case), cert. denied and appeal dismissed, 442 U.S. 907, 99 S.Ct. 2817, 61 L.Ed.2d 272 (1979). 14 In fact, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania recently considered and rejected a similar argument in upholding a contempt order entered against anti-abortion activists for violating an injunction prohibiting certain individuals and all others acting in concert with them from entering an abortion clinic for purposes of interfering with its services. Crozer-Chester Medical Center v. May, 366 Pa.Super. 265, 267, 531 A.2d 2, 4 (1987), appeal dismissed, --- Pa. ----, 550 A.2d 196 (1988); see also Neshaminy Water Resources Auth. v. Del-Aware Unlimited, Inc., 332 Pa.Super. 461, 471 n. 2, 481 A.2d 879, 883-84 & n. 2 (1984) (language binding all persons acting in concert with named defendants not impermissibly broad). 57 Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(d) expressly provides an injunction will be binding on persons in active concert or participation with the parties enjoined who receive actual notice of the order. In light of the jury's finding that the three Defendants against whom the verdict was entered on the interference with contractual relations claim combined in an enterprise with other Defendants, it appears that the record would support an injunction directed to concerted conduct. 58 The Center argues that because this is now the second time that the district court failed to grant it effective injunctive relief, we should ourselves either enter its proposed injunction or at least we should direct the district court to do so in clear and unambiguous terms. While such a course might be expeditious, we decline to fix the terms of the injunction. 15 The district court is in a better position, in compliance with the requirements of Rule 65(d), to set the terms of an appropriate injunction based on the evidence in the record. 59 Since we have found unsupportable as a matter of law the only basis on which the district court declined to issue a more extensive injunction, we must remand this matter so that it can reconsider the Center's arguments that the injunction entered is inadequate.