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7/30/2019 Lind Declaration
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MINNESTOA
ANNEX MEDICAL, INC.; STUART LIND,
and TOM JANAS
Plaintiffs,
v.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS,in her official
capacity as Secretary of the United States
Department of Health and Human Services;
HILDA SOLIS,in her official capacity as
Secretary of the United States Department ofLabor; TIMOTHY GEITHNER,in his official
capacity as Secretary of the United States
Department of the Treasury; UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES; UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR; and UNITED
STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE
TREASURY,
Defendants.
Civ. No. 12-cv-02804-DSD-SER
DECLARATION OF
STUART LIND
Declaration of Stuart Lind
I, Stuart Lind, make the following declaration from personal knowledge pursuant
to 28 U.S.C. 1746:
1. I am citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of Minnesota.2. I am the founder and president of Annex Medical, Inc., a Minnesota
corporation that designs and manufactures medical devices.
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3. I am also the founder and president of Sacred Heart Medical, Inc., aMinnesota corporation that sells and markets medical devices manufactured by Annex
Medical.
4. I founded Annex Medical in the basement of my residential home in 1988.In 1989, Annex Medical moved into a commercial facility. In 2000, Annex Medical
moved into its current facility, located at 6018 Blue Circle Drive, Minnetonka, Minnesota
55343.
5. Annex Medical was incorporated on September 18, 1988.6. Annex Medical has been a family-owned business since 1996. Its
shareholders consist exclusively of family membersme and the estate of my recently
deceased father, Dean Lind. I own 202,782 shares of Annex Medical stock, or
approximately 96.5 percent of the shares, and the estate of Dean Lind owns the remaining
7,208 shares.
7. I am a devout Catholic and am steadfastly committed to following thereligious, ethical and moral teachings of the Catholic Church.
8. I attend Holy Trinity Parish, where my pastor is Father John Echert.9. I sincerely believe and strive to adhere to Catholic teaching on the sanctity
of life, including the belief that contraception, sterilization, abortion and use of
abortifacient drugs are intrinsically evil and immoral because they are capable of
preventing or destroying a human life. (See Verified Complaint (VC) 47-52.)
10. I sincerely believe and strive to adhere to Catholic teaching on providingfor the physical needs of my employees. (VC 56-57.) Consistent with this teaching, I
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sincerely believe I have a moral and religious duty to provide for the physical needs of
my employees. As part of my commitment to fulfilling this duty, I provide a group health
insurance plan for Annex Medicals employees and their families. I consider providing
this group health plan to my employees to be an exercise of my sincerely-held religious
beliefs.
11. I strive to adhere to Catholic teaching in all aspects of my life, includingmy operation of Annex Medical.
12. I personally wrote Annex Medicals mission statement to reflect mycommitment to adhere to Catholic teaching in the operation of my business. Annex
Medicals mission statement reads
The mission of Annex Medical, Inc. is to manufacture
medical products of high quality and good value, while
conducting business in a way that is pleasing to God and is
faithful to Biblical principles and values. We will accomplish
this mission from a Christian perspective that respects others
who believe differently while sharing the joy we havereceived from Jesus Christ.
13. In 2001, I officially and publicly consecrated Annex Medical and SacredHeart Medical to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a
Roman Catholic ceremony recognizing the Kingship of Jesus Christ, in this case, over my
business. This consecration is both a public profession of my faith and a formal
commitment to operate my businesses in accordance with the teaching of Jesus Christ. A
true and correct copy of the invitation to this consecration is attached as Exhibit A.
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14. As president, I am the sole decision-maker for Annex Medical and SacredHeart Medical. My religious beliefs are thus reflected in my operation of these
companies.
15. When my businesses engage in or cooperate with activity that violatesCatholic teaching, I believe it is a violation of my own religious beliefs.
16. Thus, when my businesses have engaged in or cooperate with activities thatviolate Catholic teaching, I have attempted, where possible, to cause them to cease such
activity or cooperation with the same.
17. For example, in 1998, I made a very difficult and costly business decisionbased on my belief that I must operate my businesses in accordance with my religious
convictions. Annex Medical had developed and was successfully marketing a heart
biopsy forceps. The forceps was used on patients who had received transplanted hearts.
The heart donors were declared brain dead under certain criteria determined by the
medical community. However, I became informed that the harvesting procedure of brain
dead donors actually begins while the donors heart is beating and there is normal blood
pressure and circulation. Some within the medical profession have concluded that this
invalidates the determination that a donors life has ended. I believe that life is a
fundamental right received from our Creator and that it is morally unacceptable to end
prematurely the life of a dying person. Accordingly, I discontinued this promising
product line so as to not be complicit with this morally unacceptable act.
18. In 2002,I ended Annex Medicals 7-year relationship with AmericanExpress, which was facilitating Annex Medicals employee retirement plans, upon
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learning that American Express contributes money to Planned Parenthood, a provider of
abortion and abortion services. A true and correct copy of correspondence between me
and American Express regarding this decision is attached as Exhibit B.
19. I have also taken proactive steps to ensure that my businesses do notcooperate with activities I believe are sinful and immoral. For example, distributors and
sales representatives that contract with Sacred Heart Medical to purchase and market
products manufactured by Annex Medical must represent that they will at no time
distribute or represent products that are labeled with indications for contraception,
sterilization, abortion, pregnancy termination, or in vitro fertilization. True and correct
copies of sales and distribution contracts containing such representations are attached as
Exhibit C. The relevant provisions have been highlighted.
20. From my pastors comments in our parish bulletin on August 12, 2012, Ibecame aware that the HHS Mandate went into effect earlier that month and that it had
inspired a national controversy, including a legal challenge brought by Hercules
Industries, a Colorado corporation, and its owners.
21. Catholic teaching and my sincerely-held religious beliefs prohibit me fromintentionally participating in, paying for, facilitating access to, or otherwise cooperating
with contraception, sterilization, abortifacient drugs, and related education and
counseling.
22. Upon learning that the HHS Mandate requires businesses to include theseitems in their group health plans, I contacted Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
regarding Annex Medicals group health plan to ensure it did not provide coverage for
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any products or services I believe are sinful and immoral, including those required by the
HHS Mandate.
23. During this examination, I discovered that, although it is not currentlysubject to the Mandate, Annex Medicals current group health plan provides coverage for
abortions, abortifacient drugs, sterilization and contraception supplies and prescription
medications. Thus,
24. Coverage for these drugs and services was not included knowingly as to doso would be contrary to Catholic teaching and my sincerely-held religious beliefs.
25. Because Annex Medicals group health plan is not currently subject to theMandate, these drugs and services are being provided at cost to the employee. Inevitably
though, Annex Medical will be required to provide them at no cost to the employee when
its group plan becomes subject to the Mandate on the date of its next schedule annual
renewalJuly 1, 2013.
26. As I have done previously in similar circumstances that were contrary tomy religious beliefs, I took steps to cease Annex Medicals cooperation with these drugs
and services. I contacted Annex Medicals group health plan provider, Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Minnesota, to request that Annex Medicals group health plan be modified
to exclude coverage for contraception, sterilization, abortifacient drugs and related
education and counseling.
27. Blue Cross informed me that Blue Cross did not permit Annex Medical tomodify its group health plan to omit such coverage because Blue Cross requires all group
health plans issued to employers with fewer than 50 employees to include such coverage.
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28. I then inquired with three other insurance issuers in Minnesota as towhether they could sell a group health plan to Annex Medical that excludes coverage for
abortions, contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs.
29. However, none of the issuers was able to offer such a group plan. I was toldby these issuers that the HHS Mandate requires them to provide HHS Mandate-compliant
coverage in all group health plans they offer.
30. The HHS Mandate has made it impossible for me to select a group healthplan that did not include coverage for products and services that the Catholic Church
teaches are sinful and immoral.
31. I then sought the advice of my pastor, Father Echert. Through severalconsultations and a meeting, Father Echert explained that since continuing to provide a
group plan to Annex Medical employees that includes coverage of innate evils was
contrary my conscience, it would be sinful for me to do so. If I could not exclude
coverage for these products and services, he explained that I must discontinue Annex
Medicals group plan in order to avoid this sin.
32. As the HHS Mandate has made it impossible for me to purchase a grouphealth plan that excludes these products and services, I determined I must follow the
spiritual advice of my pastor and discontinue Annex Medicals group health plan.
33. On October 22, 2012, I held a company meeting at Annex Medical toinform my employees of my plan to seek judicial relief and, if none could be obtained, to
discontinue their group health plan on January 31, 2013. A true and correct copy of the
letter to my employees explaining my decision is attached as Exhibit D.
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34. At this meeting, Father Echert gave a presentation during which heexplained in detail why the HHS Mandate was morally and religious problematic for me.
35. Unless I receive relief from the court, I will be forced to terminate myemployees health insurance plan. This is problematic for me for several reasons. First, I
sincerely believe my Catholic faith places a moral duty on me to provide for the physical
needs of my employees. I provide health care for my employees as an exercise of this
belief. If I must discontinue health care to avoid the sin of cooperation with the HHS
Mandate, I will be prevented from exercising this belief. Second, I will expose Annex
Medical to competitive disadvantages in that I will be unable to offer an important benefit
to current and prospective employees. I am concerned this may make it more difficult to
attract and retain quality employees. The majority of Annex Medicals production
workers must fabricate delicate wire assemblies using a microscope. The wires in these
assemblies are about the same thickness as a human hair, requiring my employees to have
very fine finger dexterity. Minimum scores have been established using two standardized
manual dexterity tests that help to predict a candidates ability to succeed in this work.
My experience has shown that less than 25% of the candidates have been able to meet
both minimum scores. In addition, more than half of those hired for this microscope work
have been unable to complete the introduction period because the job was beyond their
capability. The dexterity requirement has made obtaining workers difficult. I believe it
will become even more difficult if we are prevented from offering health insurance
benefits to the small pool of qualified applicants.
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Exhibit ACASE 0:12-cv-02804-DSD-SER Document 13 Filed 11/23/12 Page 1 of 2
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Exhibit A
Exhibit A - 2
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Exhibit B
Exhibit B - 1
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Exhibit B
Exhibit B - 2
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Exhibit B
Exhibit B - 3
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 1
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Exhibit CCASE 0:12-cv-02804-DSD-SER Document 13-2 Filed 11/23/12 Page 2 of 12
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 3
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 4
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 5
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 6
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 7
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 8
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 9
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 10
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 11
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Exhibit C
Exhibit C - 12
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Exhibit DCASE 0:12-cv-02804-DSD-SER Document 13-3 Filed 11/23/12 Page 1 of 1