M.S. v. State

137 S.W.3d 131
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 18, 2004
DocketNos. 01-03-01080-CV, 01-03-01101-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 137 S.W.3d 131 (M.S. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
M.S. v. State, 137 S.W.3d 131 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

[133]*133OPINION

GEORGE C. HANKS, JR., Justice.

In these accelerated cases, appellant, M.S., challenges the trial court’s orders that he be involuntarily committed for temporary, inpatient mental health services and be administered psychoactive medications.

Appellant argues that the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court’s order for temporary, inpatient mental health services and order to administer psychoactive medication. We dismiss in part and reverse and render in part.

Background

Linea McNeel, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist, testified that, after evaluating appellant, she determined that appellant suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Dr. McNeel testified that appellant

... has a history of improving while he is in the hospital when he takes medication but not being compliant -with the medication when he leaves the hospital. He becomes aggressive, intrusive with other patients. He has passed notes to female patients that were inappropriate.1 He is intrusive—

Dr. McNeel testified that appellant was not a danger to himself. She further testified that, as a result of suffering from a mental illness, appellant was likely to cause serious harm to others. He became combative when told an EAD2 was being filed, and he remained intrusive and had poor boundaries with others. He had to be restrained in the emergency department, and he was suffering severe abnormal mental, emotional, or physical distress. Dr. McNeel testified, however, that appellant could function independently and could provide for his basic needs, but he could not make a rational or informed decision as to whether or not to submit to treatment. She further testified that he could not be successfully treated as an outpatient, and she recommended that he be placed in the Austin State Hospital. Finally, Dr. McNeel testified that “it is likely that he would be [aggressive with others] because I think he would quit taking his medicine [if released].” Her primary complaint was that she did not think appellant would be compliant with his medications if he were not committed.

Appellant testified during the hearing. When asked if he takes his medication when he was not in the hospital, appellant responded, “Yes, I do except sometimes I do lessen it to a point where I don’t take it as much. I just lessen it to where I don’t take as much times.”

Appellant’s mother, Martha Marie Moyt, testified that appellant lived with her off and on. She testified that she resisted her son’s efforts to see a physician. Moyt testified that appellant was doing “pretty good” on his medications at home, and that “he was calm at home.”

Selina Josey, the liaison with the Gulf Coast Center, recommended that, if the trial court decided to commit appellant, he should be placed in the Austin State Hospital. She testified that appellant’s medi[134]*134cal records3 indicated that he was “very aggressive with his family at home” and he was “minimally compliant with his medications.” Josey interpreted appellant’s records to show that appellant “does not feel that he needs treatment” because he was minimally compliant with his medications.

Appellant testified again at his hearing. He explained that he was restrained in the emergency room because “an officer came toward me in an erratical manner and he put his hand on my throat and all I did was pull his finger off and his finger hurt and that was it.” Appellant acknowledged that he had been in the hospital three times for this mental condition — one of which was voluntary.

The trial court found that appellant was suffering from a mental illness and, as a result of that mental illness, he was likely to cause serious harm to others and he was suffering from severe and abnormal mental, emotional or physical distress and was unable to make a rational and informed decision about whether or not to submit to treatment. The trial court ordered that appellant be committed to the Austin State Hospital for a period of time not to exceed 90 days.4

At the conclusion of the commitment hearing, Dr. McNeel testified that, because of his mental illness, appellant lacked the capacity to make a rational decision about whether or not to take psychoactive medication. She testified that his prognosis was good with the medications, but that there would be further deterioration requiring a more restrictive environment if he did not take his medications.

The trial court ordered that the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation was authorized to administer several different types of medications in the event that appellant refused medication or the prescribed dosage.

Order to Administer Psychoactive Medications

There was no notice of appeal filed in cause number 1083-A, the order for the administration of psychoactive medications. Consequently, cause number 01-03-01101-CV pertaining to the appeal of the order to administer psychoactive medication is dismissed for want of jurisdiction. See Tex.R.App. P. 25.1.

Order of Commitment

Appellant argues that the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court’s order for commitment.

Standard of Review

On an application for court-ordered temporary inpatient mental health services,

the Texas Mental Health Code requires the State to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that

(1) the proposed patient is mentally ill; and
(2) as a result of that mental illness the proposed patient:
(A) is likely to cause serious harm to himself;
(B) is likely to cause serious harm to others; or
(C) is:
(i) suffering severe and abnormal mental, emotional, or physical distress;
[135]*135(ii) experiencing substantial mental or physical deterioration of the proposed patient’s ability to function independently, which is exhibited by the proposed patient’s inability, except for reasons of indigence, to provide for the proposed patient’s basic needs, including food, clothing, health, or safety; and
(iii) unable to make a rational and informed decision as to whether or not to submit to treatment.

Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. § 574.034(a) (Vernon 2003). A trial court must specify which criteria form the basis for its decision to grant the State’s application. Id. § 574.034(c) (Vernon 2003); K.T. v. State, 68 S.W.3d 887, 889-90 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2002, no pet.).

To constitute clear and convincing evidence under the Mental Health Code for inpatient mental health services, the evidence must include expert testimony and “evidence of a recent, overt act or a continuing pattern of behavior that tends to confirm: (1) the likelihood of serious harm to the proposed patient or others; or (2) the proposed patient’s distress and the proposed patient’s deterioration of ability to function.” Tex Health & Safety Code Ann. § 574.034(d) (Vernon 2003);5 G.H. v. State,

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Bluebook (online)
137 S.W.3d 131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ms-v-state-texapp-2004.