State ex rel. Fuller v. Mullinax

269 S.W.2d 72, 364 Mo. 858
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 14, 1954
DocketNo. 44094
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 269 S.W.2d 72 (State ex rel. Fuller v. Mullinax) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Fuller v. Mullinax, 269 S.W.2d 72, 364 Mo. 858 (Mo. 1954).

Opinion

LEEDY, Judge.

This original proceeding in mandamus to compel the admission of a mentally ill individual as a patient in a state mental hospital has been brought as a test case to determine the constitutionality of a recently enacted statute which, although it authorizes the use in certain situations of a revamped and greatly modified form of judicial proceeding, introduces into our jurisprudence other new and radically different procedures governing the hospitalization of the mentally ill. H.B. 355, Laws ’53, p. -, Sections 202.780 to 202.870 RSMo 1949, V.A.M,S.

There is no dispute as to the facts. For present purposes the following statement will suffice: Relatrix’s adult daughter, Esther Porter, a resident of Jackson County, is a -mentally ill individual, as defined in the act. On Oct. 28, 1953, her hospitalization was applied for in writing by relatrix under the so-called “standard non-judicial procedure” provisions of § 6 of the act. It was accompanied by the required medical certification, and the latter having stated the belief that Esther was likely to injure herself or others if allowed to remain at liberty, was duly endorsed by the Judge of the Probate Court of Jackson County (Hon. Leslie A. Welch), the effect of which endorsement, under sub-section 3 of § 6, was to authorize any health or police officer to take Esther into custody and transport her to State Hospital No. 2, the hospital designated in the application. Respondent, although conceding suitable accommodations were available, refused to admit Esther for the reason that he had been informed that the new act was unconstitutional and void.

The Attorney General had held certain cognate sections, Sections 202.610 and 202.630 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., governing admissions to Missouri .State School to be unconstitutional as in violation of the due process requirements of the Federal and Missouri Constitutions. For this reason, and others deemed sufficient because of the importance of the question involved, this court permitted the constitutionality of the new act to be raised by respondent, and presented for determination in this proceeding.

The act is patterned after a suggested or tentative draft of legislation dealing with the problem of commitment and hospitalization of the mentally ill, prepared in the Federal Security Agency by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Office of the General Counsel (Public Health Service Pub. No. 51, G.P.0.1952), and herein referred to as the “draft act,” which embodied the basic principles suggested in “The Mental Health Programs of the Forty-eight States,” The Council of State Governments’ Report to the Governors’ Conference (1950). It would appear that Missouri is the first of the states to adopt the model aot, although some of its features, in varying forms and degrees, can be identified as having been taken from statutes of other states. In adopting it our own legislature made changes, some of which will be hereinafter noticed. Some idea of the magnitude of the study and effort which has gone into the draft act may be gained by reference to recent law review articles on the subject, such as “Comments on a Draft Act for the Hospitalization of the Mentally Ill”by Charles W. Whitmore, M.D., (1950-51) 19. Geo.Wash.L.R., 512-530; “Hospitalization of the Mentally Ill” (which includes a discussion of the draft act, 859-863) by Henry Weihofen, Professor of Law, University of New Mexico, (1951-1952) 50 Mich.L.R., 837-872; “Hospitalization of the Mentally Ill” by Wm. J. Curran, Assistant Director, Institute of Government, Assistant Research Professor in Public Law and Government, University of North Carolina, (1953) 31 N.C.L.R., 274-298. See, also, “Constitutionality of Nonjudicial Confinement,” (Note, 1950) 3 Stanford L.R., 109.

As enacted by the 69th General Assembly,' the new statute repealed 18 sections of Chapter 202, RSMol949, in relation to the hospitalization of insane persons, and enacted 28 new sections in lieu thereof. Unlike pre-existing legislation on the subject, private hospital's are included within the purview of the act. In briefest outline, its provisions are these: § 1 defines cer-táin. terms as used in the act. Sections 2, 3 and' 4 authorize the voluntary hospitalization of a person who is mentally ill (defined by § 1 [74]*74as “an individual having a psychiatric or other disease which substantially impairs his mental health”), or who has symptoms of mental illness, and provide procedures for admission, release, etc., of such voluntarily hospitalized persons. Section 5 authorizes, in the case of private hospitals, and enjoins upon public hospitals the duty of, receiving “for observation, diagnosis, care and treatment” any individual whose admission is applied for under any of four procedures (therein enumerated) for the involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill, as follows:

L On medical certification; standard n'dií-judicial procedure;

2. On medical certification; emergency procedure;

3. Without endorsement or medical certification; emergency procedure;

4. On court order; judicial procedure:

The four procedures thus enumerated are respectively developed and detailed in §§ 6, 7, 8 and 9. Section 10 has to do with the hospitalization by, an agency of the United States of a person eligible therefor who has been ordered hospitalized under § 9, jurisdiction being retained in the appropriate court to at any time inquire into the mental condition of the person so hospitalized. Section 11 deals with the matter of transporting mentally ill persons to hospitals and their detention pending removal. Post admission provisions are set out in §§ 12 to 18. They embrace such matters as notice of hospitalization, medical examination of newly admitted patients, transfer of patients, periodic examination and discharge, convalescent status, right to release and application for judicial determination, and reexamination of order of hospitalization. Sections 19 through 25, together with § 28, are provisions applicable to patients generally, such as the right to humane care and treatment, .banning mechanical restraints, right to communication and visitation, exercise of civil rights, making the writ of habeas corpus available to any person so confined, prohibiting the disclosure of certain information, detentiori'pending judicial determination, and imposing 'penalties' for unwarranted hospitalization or • denial of rights. Sections 26 and 27 are not to be found in the draft act. They represent purely local adaptions, and are derived, in part, from repealed §§ 202.120, 202.270,. 202.280, and 202.310, RSMo 1949 and.V.A. M.S. The effect of § 26(2) will be the subj ect of later comment.

The four grounds of attack here made upon the constitutionality of the act are as follows: (1) That in violation of Art. Ill, § 23, Const, of Mo.1945, V.A.M.S., the subject of the bill is not clearly expressed in the title, and the bill embraces more than one subject; (2) that §§ 6, 7 and 8 permit Esther Porter and other citizens to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, in violation of Art. I, § 10, Const, of Mo.1945, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Const, of the U. S.; (3) that the act abolishes the right of .trial by jury .if demanded, in violation or Art. I, § 22(a), Const, of Mo.1945; and (4) that it provides for the seizure and detention of a person under and by virtue of a written document not supported by oath or affirmation, in violation of Art. I, §.15, Const, of Mo.1945.

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269 S.W.2d 72, 364 Mo. 858, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-fuller-v-mullinax-mo-1954.