State ex rel. Bodkins v. Cook

633 S.W.2d 477, 1981 Tenn. App. LEXIS 598
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 6, 1981
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 633 S.W.2d 477 (State ex rel. Bodkins v. Cook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Bodkins v. Cook, 633 S.W.2d 477, 1981 Tenn. App. LEXIS 598 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

TOMLIN, Judge.

These two cases have been consolidated for presentation to this Court. Both juveniles, at the time their petitions were filed, were confined by the Department of Correction at Spencer Youth Center in Davidson County. Bodkins had been committed to the department from Gibson County, and England had been committed from Macon County. Each inmate filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Chancery Court of Davidson County, alleging that the relief afforded them under the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act was inappropriate and ineffective, and that their commitment to the Tennessee Department of Correction was illegal. The state filed motions to dismiss on the grounds of lack of subject-matter jurisdiction in Davidson County.

The Honorable Robert Brandt, Chancellor, in separate hearings, considered the arguments on the state’s motion to dismiss, as well as the merits of the petitioners’ claim at the same time. Final decrees were entered in each case, overruling the state’s motion to dismiss, declaring that the relief under the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act was inappropriate and ineffective, and thus that the Chancery Court of Davidson County had jurisdiction to entertain the writ. Based on a finding of illegal commitment, the chancellor ordered each inmate released.

The same issue is presented to this Court in both cases — that is, whether or not the chancellor erred in denying the state’s motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, and in so doing finding that the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act provided ineffective and inappropriate relief. For the reasons set forth below, we respectfully reverse the trial court in each case.

It will not be necessary to go into the merits of the commitment proceedings. A consideration of the action of the trial court in each case on respondents’ motion to dismiss will be sufficient. In their motion to dismiss, the respondents contend that the provisions of the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act, as amended, preclude the Chancery Court of Davidson County from exercising subject matter jurisdiction over the case.

T.C.A. Sec. 37-1703 provides in part as follows:

37-1703. Filing of petition — Designation of chancellor or judge to hear and determine petition. — To begin proceedings under this chapter, the petitioner shall file a written petition with the clerk of the chancery or circuit court in the county in which the commitment occurred, naming the state of Tennessee as the respondent. . .

T.C.A. Sec. 37-1708, as amended by Chapter 752 of the Public Acts of 1980, reads as follows:

37-1708. Applications for habeas corpus — When allowed. — An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a petitioner entitled to apply pursuant to this chapter shall not be entertained if it appears that the applicant has failed to apply for relief pursuant to this chapter with the chancery or circuit court in the county of commitment, unless the petitioner establishes that an application under this chapter would be inadequate or ineffective.

The position of respondents is that the petitioner in each case has failed to file a petition under the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act in the county of his commitment, and further, that they have failed to establish that such an application would be either inadequate or ineffective.

There are some differences in the issues raised and procedures followed in the two cases that should be noted. In Bodkins, the petitioner challenged the constitutionality [479]*479of the amendment to the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act, designated as Chapter 752 of the Public Acts of 1980, codified as T.C.A. Sec. 37-1708. In addition to their answer, the respondents also filed a motion to dismiss.

In support of the motion to dismiss the petition of England, the respondents filed sworn affidavits, executed by the circuit judge and chancellor, respectively, in whose jurisdiction Macon County lies, to the effect that the England case would be given an expedited hearing, and that in substance the procedures prescribed by the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act would be followed. The chancellor below treated respondents’ motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment, in light of the supporting affidavits. No counter-affidavits of any type were filed by petitioners. Over objection of counsel for respondents, the chancellor permitted one of the counsel of record for the petitioner to testify in Bodkins, in opposition to respondents’ motion to dismiss. In England, the chancellor allowed petitioner to put on proof in opposition to respondents’ motion for summary judgment in the form of a transcript of Andrew J. Shookhoff’s testimony in the Bodkins case, (Mr. Shookhoff being a clinical instructor at Vanderbilt Law School and the supervisor of the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society), as well as live testimony of a former supervisor of the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society.

In overruling respondents’ motion to dismiss in Bodkins, the chancellor held that the 1980 amendment to the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act, was unconstitutional, as it amounted to a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. In holding that the remedy provided by the Act was inadequate, in Bodkins the court said in part:

... The petitioners confined at the Spencer Youth Center in Nashville. Under an arrangement between the Department of Corrections and the Legal Aid Society at Nashville’s Vanderbilt Law School, law students and supervising attorneys provide legal assistance to inmates at Spencer. This assistance is the only legal assistance to which the confined juveniles have access. The legal assistance provided by the Vanderbilt students and attorneys is available only in Nashville, with a few exceptions not here relevant. There is no evidence before the court that there is any comparable program in or near Gibson County. (T.R. 5-6).

In overruling the respondents’ motion for summary judgment in England, and declaring the act to be inadequate and ineffective in this case, the court said in part:

As in other juvenile habeas corpus cases this court has considered, there is no attorney available to Mark England to file and prosecute a post-commitment petition in the county of commitment. To have attorneys in Nashville merely assist children in preparing petitions to mail to a court clerk in an unknown (sic) county does not constitute effective and adequate representation...

Subsequent to the entry of a final decree in England, the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of State, ex rel. Huskey, et al. v. Hatler, et al., 606 S.W.2d 534 (Tenn. 1980), was released. This case dealt with many of the problems faced in both cases under consideration. Respondents filed a motion to reconsider in England. In the lower court’s order denying the motion, the chancellor noted that in the Huskey case, the Supreme Court held that the burden of showing the inadequacy of the relief available under the Juvenile Post-Commitment Procedures Act was on the petitioner, in order to maintain a habeas corpus action. It distinguished Huskey.from England on the basis that no evidence had been introduced by the petitioners in Huskey to meet this burden, whereas evidence was introduced in England.

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633 S.W.2d 477, 1981 Tenn. App. LEXIS 598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-bodkins-v-cook-tennctapp-1981.