N.J. Supreme Court: Parent's First Amendment right was violated, but $100K award was excessive

barry-albin.jpgNew Jersey Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin, who wrote the majority opinion.
TRENTON — The state Supreme Court ruled today a parent’s First Amendment rights were violated when his remarks were cut short during a school board meeting.

But the court, in a 5-2 decision, also said the parent’s $100,000 award was excessive and sent the case back to a trial court for review.

The parent, Philip Besler, attended a Jan. 28, 1997, meeting of the West Windsor-Plainsboro school board to address concerns that his daughter was being verbally abused by a coach. After starting to speak during a public comments section of the meeting, the board president smacked his gavel and said they were "not going to entertain those comments."

Besler filed a lawsuit on behalf of himself and his daughter, who said the coach’s comments led to an eating disorder. The jury awarded Besler $100,000 for his First Amendment claim.

The school board appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, saying it was allowed to cut off Besler because he was only going to repeat concerns previously expresed in other meetings. But the state’s highest court agreed there was a First Amendment violation.

"Besler presented sufficient evidence for the jury to determine that the board silenced him for no reason other than the unpopular viewpoint he expressed," wrote Justice Barry Albin, in the court’s majority opinion.

Besler’s lawyer, Daniel Fleming, said the court reaffirmed a parent’s right to speak out at public meetings.

"When you boil it down, this was just a dad who was upset and he wanted to complain about it," he said. "That’s what any parent would want to do. And this board shut him out."

Justices Roberto Rivera-Soto and Helen Hoens disagreed with the majority’s opinion. They called Besler’s claim of emotional injury "so pathetically trivial, so legally insignificant, so factually inconsequential" that the verdict in his favor should be overturned.

The court decision concluded Besler’s $100,000 award was excessive. Fleming emphasized that the Supreme Court did not throw out the award, saying that’s for a trial court to decide.

A lawyer for the school board, Sharon Moore, did not respond to requests for comment today.

Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, agreed Besler’s award was excessive. In a legal filing, the association argued that the board president was allowed to cut off Besler in an effort to prevent public discussion of private personnel information.