Donahue Schriber Realty Group, Inc. v. NU Creation Outreach

Plaintiff obtained a preliminary injunction enjoining defendants from soliciting charitable donations or engaging in other expressive activities on sidewalks adjacent to store entrances in plaintiff’s shopping center; the order permits defendants to engage in such activities in the public forum area of the shopping center designated on a diagram attached to the injunction. Defendants appeal, contending the areas adjacent to store entrances where they solicited donations are public forum areas in which expressive activities cannot be prohibited. We find no error in the trial court’s determination that the store entrances and aprons are not a public forum. Accordingly, we affirm the order.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff controls the Fig Garden Village shopping center, an outdoor shopping center with approximately 60 retailers. Plaintiff has a policy of prohibiting solicitation of donations on the shopping center property; it allows other forms of expressive activity, such as gathering petition signatures, in a designated public forum area only. On July 28, 2013, two solicitors for Nu Creation Outreach went on the shopping center property and solicited…