Opinion
GARDNER, P. J.
These four writ proceedings present a common issue: Whether there is a right to jury trial in a habeas corpus proceeding brought by a person civilly committed as mentally retarded pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500 et seq.
In 4 Civil 15715 the Medical Director of Patton State Hospital and the State Department of Health seek a writ of prohibition to prevent the superior court from granting jury trials to five persons involuntarily confined in Patton State Hospital as mentally retarded persons pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500 et seq. Each of these five persons instituted habeas corpus proceedings in the superior court seeking release from custody. The question of their right to jury trial was briefed and argued in superior court. The judge granted the motion for jury trial in each case and the instant writ proceeding is in effect an interlocutory appeal from those orders. However, the Attorney General has informed us that four of the proceedings below have now been dismissed following the release of the persons concerned, and therefore as to these proceedings the petition is moot. We treat this declaration as a motion to amend the petition to delete reference to the dismissed proceedings, which we grant.
Numbers 4 Civil 15729, 4 Civil 15740, and 4 Civil 15786, are petitions for writs of habeas corpus by three other persons confined in Patton State Hospital as mentally retarded persons. These petitioners each filed a prior habeas petition in the superior court which was heard without a jury and denied. We granted alternative writs and issued orders to show cause for the limited purpose of determining whether the Superior Court acted within its jurisdiction in denying the petitions without affording the option of jury trial. Two of these three petitioners have now been released from Patton State Hospital and therefore have already received the relief requested. Motions to dismiss their petitions for habeas corpus have been filed by the Attorney General on the ground of mootness. Although petitioners’ counsel urges us to apply the public interest exception to the mootness doctrine (see 6 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (2d ed.) Appeal, § 470), there is no need to apply that exception here because the questions raised in the moot petitions are also raised by the remaining petition for habeas corpus and by the amended petition for writ of prohibition. Accordingly, mootness is a sufficient ground for denying the writs of habeas corpus in numbers 4 Civil 15729 and 4 Civil 15740. (See
People
v.
Daniels,
14 Cal.3d 857, 863 [122 Cal.Rptr. 872, 537 P.2d 1232].)
Resolution of the issue before us requires a brief review of statutory provisions governing involuntary commitment of the mentally retarded and decision of certain preliminary questions concerning their operation.
Prior to July 1, 1971, a person could be committed to a state hospital for an indefinite period upon a finding of mental retardation. (See generally,
Legal Planning for the Mentally Retarded: The California Experience,
60 Cal.L.Rev. 438.) On and after July 1, 1971, no mentally retarded person may be committed unless it is also shown that he or she is a danger to self or others. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6500.1.) Also, beginning January 1, 1976, the effective date of the most recent amendment to Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500.1,
any order committing a mentally retarded person expires automatically one year after the order of commitment is made.
I
The first question presented is whether commitment orders made prior to January 1, 1976, continue to be effective as indefinite commitments, or whether such orders are subject to expiration.
We are informed by the Attorney General, acting on behalf of the State Department of Health, that the Second District Court of Appeal has concluded, in an unpublished opinion, that orders entered prior to January 1, 1976, are subject to expiration. We are in agreement with this conclusion. The most reasonable and logical interpretation of the statutory language (see fn. 1,
ante)
is that complete coverage was intended; i.e., that the provision for expiration applies to all commitments, and not just commitments made after the effective date of the amendment. Moreover, a different interpretation would raise serious constitutional questions. Under the equal protection clauses of the
California and federal Constitutions, statutes which affect fundamental interests must be applied uniformly unless classification is necessary to further some compelling state interest. (See
In re Gary W.,
5 Cal.3d 296, 306 [96 Cal.Rptr. 1, 486 P.2d 1201];
In re Kapperman,
11 Cal.3d 542, 545 [114 Cal.Rptr. 97, 522 P.2d 657].) The distinction between indefinite commitment and commitment for a single year substantially involves the fundamental interest of personal liberty, and therefore it would appear that the state would be required to demonstrate that different treatment of persons according to their commitment date was necessary to further a compelling state interest. There is also some question whether indefinite commitment of the mentally retarded would satisfy the requirements of due process of law. (See
Jackson
v.
Indiana,
406 U.S. 715 [32 L.Ed.2d 435, 92 S.Ct. 1845];
People
v.
Feagley,
14 Cal.3d 338, 358-376 [121 Cal.Rptr. 509, 535 P.2d 373];
In re Davis,
8 Cal.3d 798, 803-805 [106 Cal.Rptr. 178, 505 P.2d 1018].) In view of these serious difficulties, and the willingness of the Attorney General to concede that pre-1976 commitments are subject to expiration, we construe Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500.1 to so provide.
II
A related question is
when
pre-1976 commitments expire. It is inconceivable that the Legislature intended all such commitments to expire January 1, 1976. The cardinal rule of construction is that statutes are to be interpreted to produce a reasonable result.
(Alford
v.
Pierno,
27 Cal.App.3d 682, 688 [104 Cal.Rptr. 110].) Accordingly, to allow a sufficient interval for orderly transition, we construe the statute as providing for expiration of all pre-1976 orders on January 1, 1977, one year from the effective date of the statute.
We understand that the state, quite properly, has begun a review of aL pre-1976 commitments and that recommitment proceedings have begun in a number of instances. Thus it is hoped that the state will have completed its review by January 1, 1977. Any person committed prior to 1976 who has not been recommitted by that date will be entitled to release which may be obtained by a proceeding in habeas corpus.
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Opinion
GARDNER, P. J.
These four writ proceedings present a common issue: Whether there is a right to jury trial in a habeas corpus proceeding brought by a person civilly committed as mentally retarded pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500 et seq.
In 4 Civil 15715 the Medical Director of Patton State Hospital and the State Department of Health seek a writ of prohibition to prevent the superior court from granting jury trials to five persons involuntarily confined in Patton State Hospital as mentally retarded persons pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500 et seq. Each of these five persons instituted habeas corpus proceedings in the superior court seeking release from custody. The question of their right to jury trial was briefed and argued in superior court. The judge granted the motion for jury trial in each case and the instant writ proceeding is in effect an interlocutory appeal from those orders. However, the Attorney General has informed us that four of the proceedings below have now been dismissed following the release of the persons concerned, and therefore as to these proceedings the petition is moot. We treat this declaration as a motion to amend the petition to delete reference to the dismissed proceedings, which we grant.
Numbers 4 Civil 15729, 4 Civil 15740, and 4 Civil 15786, are petitions for writs of habeas corpus by three other persons confined in Patton State Hospital as mentally retarded persons. These petitioners each filed a prior habeas petition in the superior court which was heard without a jury and denied. We granted alternative writs and issued orders to show cause for the limited purpose of determining whether the Superior Court acted within its jurisdiction in denying the petitions without affording the option of jury trial. Two of these three petitioners have now been released from Patton State Hospital and therefore have already received the relief requested. Motions to dismiss their petitions for habeas corpus have been filed by the Attorney General on the ground of mootness. Although petitioners’ counsel urges us to apply the public interest exception to the mootness doctrine (see 6 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (2d ed.) Appeal, § 470), there is no need to apply that exception here because the questions raised in the moot petitions are also raised by the remaining petition for habeas corpus and by the amended petition for writ of prohibition. Accordingly, mootness is a sufficient ground for denying the writs of habeas corpus in numbers 4 Civil 15729 and 4 Civil 15740. (See
People
v.
Daniels,
14 Cal.3d 857, 863 [122 Cal.Rptr. 872, 537 P.2d 1232].)
Resolution of the issue before us requires a brief review of statutory provisions governing involuntary commitment of the mentally retarded and decision of certain preliminary questions concerning their operation.
Prior to July 1, 1971, a person could be committed to a state hospital for an indefinite period upon a finding of mental retardation. (See generally,
Legal Planning for the Mentally Retarded: The California Experience,
60 Cal.L.Rev. 438.) On and after July 1, 1971, no mentally retarded person may be committed unless it is also shown that he or she is a danger to self or others. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6500.1.) Also, beginning January 1, 1976, the effective date of the most recent amendment to Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500.1,
any order committing a mentally retarded person expires automatically one year after the order of commitment is made.
I
The first question presented is whether commitment orders made prior to January 1, 1976, continue to be effective as indefinite commitments, or whether such orders are subject to expiration.
We are informed by the Attorney General, acting on behalf of the State Department of Health, that the Second District Court of Appeal has concluded, in an unpublished opinion, that orders entered prior to January 1, 1976, are subject to expiration. We are in agreement with this conclusion. The most reasonable and logical interpretation of the statutory language (see fn. 1,
ante)
is that complete coverage was intended; i.e., that the provision for expiration applies to all commitments, and not just commitments made after the effective date of the amendment. Moreover, a different interpretation would raise serious constitutional questions. Under the equal protection clauses of the
California and federal Constitutions, statutes which affect fundamental interests must be applied uniformly unless classification is necessary to further some compelling state interest. (See
In re Gary W.,
5 Cal.3d 296, 306 [96 Cal.Rptr. 1, 486 P.2d 1201];
In re Kapperman,
11 Cal.3d 542, 545 [114 Cal.Rptr. 97, 522 P.2d 657].) The distinction between indefinite commitment and commitment for a single year substantially involves the fundamental interest of personal liberty, and therefore it would appear that the state would be required to demonstrate that different treatment of persons according to their commitment date was necessary to further a compelling state interest. There is also some question whether indefinite commitment of the mentally retarded would satisfy the requirements of due process of law. (See
Jackson
v.
Indiana,
406 U.S. 715 [32 L.Ed.2d 435, 92 S.Ct. 1845];
People
v.
Feagley,
14 Cal.3d 338, 358-376 [121 Cal.Rptr. 509, 535 P.2d 373];
In re Davis,
8 Cal.3d 798, 803-805 [106 Cal.Rptr. 178, 505 P.2d 1018].) In view of these serious difficulties, and the willingness of the Attorney General to concede that pre-1976 commitments are subject to expiration, we construe Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500.1 to so provide.
II
A related question is
when
pre-1976 commitments expire. It is inconceivable that the Legislature intended all such commitments to expire January 1, 1976. The cardinal rule of construction is that statutes are to be interpreted to produce a reasonable result.
(Alford
v.
Pierno,
27 Cal.App.3d 682, 688 [104 Cal.Rptr. 110].) Accordingly, to allow a sufficient interval for orderly transition, we construe the statute as providing for expiration of all pre-1976 orders on January 1, 1977, one year from the effective date of the statute.
We understand that the state, quite properly, has begun a review of aL pre-1976 commitments and that recommitment proceedings have begun in a number of instances. Thus it is hoped that the state will have completed its review by January 1, 1977. Any person committed prior to 1976 who has not been recommitted by that date will be entitled to release which may be obtained by a proceeding in habeas corpus. In the interim, of course, habeas corpus will remain available to those who seek it on other grounds; for example, that their initial commitments were invalid or that they are eligible for release pursuant to Health and Safety Code sections 38120-38121.
III
Next, we take up the question whether there is a right to jury trial, upon request, in a commitment or recommitment proceeding. Although there is no express statutory provision for jury trial in such proceedings, the Attorney General has conceded that such right exists. We agree.
Our Supreme Court strongly intimated its opinion on this question in
In re Gary W., supra,
5 Cal.3d 296. That case involved a ward of the California Youth Authority who had been committed at age 19. The ward would have been entitled to release after two years of confinement and after obtaining his majority, but the Youth Authority filed a petition under Welfare and Institutions Code section 1800 requesting an extension of confinement for two years on the grounds that the ward was “physically dangerous to the public due to his mental or physical deficiency, disorder, or abnormality.” On appeal, the ward successfully contended that he was entitled to a jury trial on the allegations of the petition.
Examining the various statutory provisions governing involuntary commitments, the court found that only Youth Authority wards and the mentally retarded were subject to involuntary commitment for extended periods without benefit of jury trial. The court held that where proceedings result in substantial loss of personal liberty, the state acts unconstitutionally, in violation of the equal protection clauses
of the California and federal Constitutions, if it grants jury trial to some groups while denying it to others, unless the different treatment is shown to be necessary to achieve a compelling state interest.
(In re Gary W., supra,
5 Cal.3d 296, 306-307.) No compelling interest justified denial of jury trial to Youth Authority wards in Welfare and Institutions Code section 1800 proceedings. In reply to an argument that denial of jury trial to Youth Authority wards could be justified by denial of the same right to the allegedly mentally retarded, the court replied: “The state does not meet its burden of demonstrating a compelling interest in denying the right to jury trial to Youth Authority wards ... by pointing out that alleged mentally retarded persons are similarly discriminated against.”
(Id., 5
Cal.3d at p. 308. See also,
People
v.
Feagley, supra,
14 Cal.3d 338, 357, fn. 13.)
It is at once apparent that the logic of
Gary W.
is controlling here. The same fundamental interest (personal liberty) and the same procedural safeguard (jury trial) are involved in the same type of proceeding (involuntary commitment). The state has not attempted to justify denial of jury trial in commitment or recommitment proceedings by reference to any compelling interest, and we are disinclined to search for one unaided. Therefore we hold that in commitment or recommitment proceedings under Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500 et seq. allegedly mentally retarded persons are entitled to jury trial upon request.
IV
We come next to the main issue presented by these consolidated proceedings: Whether there is a right to jury trial in a habeas corpus proceeding brought by a person committed pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500 et seq.
Health and Safety Code sections 38120
and 38121 provide a
mechanism by which any developmentally disabled
adult committed to certain designated facilities, including state hospitals, may obtain a hearing in Superior Court on that person’s eligibility for release. The person is entitled to release upon a finding of any of the following: That
the person is not developmentally, disabled; that the person is able to care for his basic personal needs; or that a responsible person or agency is able and willing to care for the person. In addition to this particular form of statutory habeas corpus in which the issue is eligibility for release, there is also available the traditional habeas corpus proceeding challenging the legality of the detention.
Our Supreme Court has held that persons who have been committed following acquittal of criminal charges by reason of insanity are entitled to jury trial upon request in a proceeding on an application for release pursuant to Penal Code section 1026a.
(In re Franklin,
7 Cal.3d 126, 148 [101 Cal.Rptr. 553, 496 P.2d 465].) The court referred to its earlier decision in
Gary W.,
thereby implying that jury trial was mandated by equal protection principles.
Although there are points of similarity between Penal Code section 1026a and Health and Safety Code sections 38120-38121, considerations of equal protection do not apply with equal force to the latter proceeding. Although both proceedings involve applications for release from confinement, and in both the basic allegation is that the reasons for confinement have ceased to exist, the Penal Code proceeding may be initiated not more than once yearly and
it is the only mechanism provided for periodic re-examination of the justification for confinement.
On the other hand, there is no limit on the frequency of petitions under Health and Safety Code sections 38120-38121, and, as previously mentioned, Welfare and Institutions Code section 6500.1 contemplates yearly recommitment proceedings to test the suitability of continued confinement. Since we have held that persons confined as mentally retarded have the right to jury trial on annual recommitment proceedings, such annual proceedings afford the allegedly mentally retarded rights substan
tially similar to those available under Penal Code section 1026a to persons committed following acquittal on grounds of insanity.
Since there are no statutory grounds for ordering jury trials in special habeas corpus proceedings under Health and Safety Code sections 38120-38121 or in traditional habeas corpus proceedings challenging the legality of the confinement, and since equal protection principles do not require that the right be made available in such proceedings, such proceedings are to be decided without a jury. For similar reasons, we also conclude that, as no constitutional impediment has been demonstrated, the burden of proof in such proceedings is proof by a preponderance of the evidence.
V
To provide guidance to the lower courts, where commitment and recommitment proceedings are now in progress, the parties urge us to decide questions related to standard of proof and unanimity of verdict in such proceedings. However, disposition of the petitions before us does not require resolution of these issues because these petitions relate to habeas corpus proceedings in the superior court rather than commitment proceedings. We decline to give an advisory opinion in these matters.
Certain additional contentions are raised in the various petitions. In light of our limited purpose in granting the alternative writs, we have not discussed and do not reach the additional contentions.
Consistent with the views stated above, we make the following dispositions: In number 4 Civil 15715 the writ of prohibition is amended to delete all references to proceedings in the superior court other than case number 167328 and as so amended the petition’s request for a peremptory writ of prohibition is granted; in numbers 4 Civil 15729, 4 Civil 15740, and 4 Civil 15786, the peremptory writs are denied, the alternative writs and orders to show cause heretofore issued are discharged.
Tamura, J., and Morris, J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing was denied September 2, 1976, and the petition of the real parties in interest in No. 15715 and application of the petitioners in Nos. 15729, 15740 and 15786 for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied October 14, 1976.