Glass v. Mayas
| Decision Date | 15 January 1993 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 477,477 |
| Citation | 984 F.2d 55 |
| Parties | Kendall GLASS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Manuel MAYAS, M.D., personally, Celia Wong, M.D., personally, J.L. Inciong, M.D., personally, Anand Nadkarni, M.D., personally, Boris Dadic, M.D., personally, Rosalina Sarigumba, M.D., personally, Santokh Singh Ohson, M.D., personally, Dinesh K. Sood, M.D., personally, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 92-7673. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
William M. Brooks, Huntington, NY, Mental Disability Law Clinic, Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center (William Miller, Law Student Intern, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.
Robert K. Drinan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Mineola, NY (Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. of the State of N.Y., of counsel), for defendants-appellees.
Before: MESKILL, Chief Judge, LUMBARD, and WINTER, Circuit Judges.
Kendall Glass appeals from a judgment of the Eastern District of New York, Platt, C.J., granting the defendants' motion for summary judgment on his claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1988) against several doctors and a nurse for violating his constitutional rights by involuntarily hospitalizing him for psychiatric care. Judge Platt ruled that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. 794 F.Supp. 470 (E.D.N.Y.1992). We affirm.
On June 23, 1989, the Nassau County police went to a boarding house in Massapequa, New York to investigate allegations from an unknown source that Glass was threatening another resident with a gun. Glass denied that he had a gun, and when the police were unable to find one, they left.
A week later, on June 30, the police received another complaint that Glass was threatening a resident with a gun. When the police and the Nassau County Medical Center Crisis Team responded, they saw Glass digging around trees and a cesspool cover in a strange manner. Glass again denied having a gun; no gun was discovered.
Dr. Manuel Mayas and Celia Wong, R.N., members of the Crisis Team, observed and questioned Glass. They found him to be hostile, angry, uncooperative, and argumentative and diagnosed him as a chronic, paranoid schizophrenic. They also noted that he appeared unkempt. The Crisis Team then took Glass to the Nassau County Medical Center ("NCMC").
Dr. Mayas and Ms. Wong's screening/admission notes reflect Glass's extensive psychiatric history: his father committed suicide; his mother had been hospitalized for psychiatric care on numerous occasions; and Glass had been hospitalized for psychiatric care six times, most recently from April 1986 to February 1988. The notes also mention reports in Glass's file of past violent behavior. He had abused his mother, stabbed his brother three times during a fight, and ignited a propane tank in his home.
At the NCMC, Glass was examined by Dr. J.L. Inciong, who certified Glass for involuntary hospitalization pursuant to New York Mental Hygiene Law ("NYMHL") § 9.39 1 on the basis of the reports concerning the gun, his digging activity, and his hostile and guarded attitude. Inciong's screening/admission notes also refer to Glass's psychiatric history, including his history of violence.
Glass was transferred to the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center where he was examined by Dr. Anand Nadkarni. 2 Based on Glass's threats to others, Dr. Nadkarni found that Glass manifested a tendency to cause harm to others, and he confirmed Dr. Inciong's decision to admit Glass.
On July 13, 1989, Dr. Boris Dadic, Glass's treating physician, applied for continued hospitalization of Glass pursuant to NYMHL § 9.27. 3 Dr. Dadic noted that Glass was a chronic schizophrenic and continued to display guarded, suspicious, and paranoid behavior. The application was also signed by Dr. Rosalina Sarigumba, who noted the accusation about the gun and observed that Glass was verbally abusive, suspicious, paranoid, and showed impaired judgment. She concluded that he was dangerous.
Drs. Santokh Singh Ohson and Dinesh K. Sood examined Glass and certified him for additional hospitalization pursuant to NYMHL § 9.27. Dr. Sood based his conclusion on the report that Glass had threatened someone with a gun, his suspicious, hostile, guarded, and angry attitude, and his incoherent and illogical speech. Dr. Ohson's conclusion was also based on the reported threats and on Glass's conduct.
On July 19, 1989, Glass requested a judicial hearing to challenge his confinement, as provided for by NYMHL § 9.31. A date was set, but numerous adjournments were granted, and the hearing never took place. The delays appear to have resulted from Glass's attempt to change attorneys. Glass was released from Pilgrim on September 29, 1989 after 91 days of confinement.
Glass brought this action in September 1990 claiming that his confinement violated (1) his right to due process because he did not satisfy the dangerousness requirement for involuntary hospitalization, and (2) his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures because the defendants lacked probable cause to confine him. We agree with Judge Platt that the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on both claims.
Qualified immunity protects government officials from the "costs of trial" and "broad reaching discovery" by shielding them from liability "insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 817-18, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). "[W]hether an official protected by qualified immunity may be held personally liable for an allegedly unlawful official action generally turns on the 'objective legal reasonableness' of the action ... assessed in light of the legal rules that were 'clearly established' at the time it was taken." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3038, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (quoting Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818-19, 102 S.Ct. at 2738).
Determining the objective legal reasonableness of a specific action depends upon the level of generality with which applicable legal rules are defined. "The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Anderson, 483 U.S. at 640, 107 S.Ct. at 3039. Thus, in the context of an illegal police search, the Anderson Court inquired "whether a reasonable officer could have believed Anderson's warrantless search to be lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information the searching officer possessed." Id. at 641, 107 S.Ct. at 3040.
Glass claims that his involuntary commitment violated the Due Process Clause because he was not dangerous. 4 The Supreme Court has held that "a State cannot constitutionally confine without more a nondangerous individual who is capable of surviving in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and responsible family members." O'Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563, 576, 95 S.Ct. 2486, 2494, 45 L.Ed.2d 396 (1975). Accordingly, New York law has been interpreted to require a finding of dangerousness. See Matter of Scopes v. Shah, 59 A.D.2d 203, 398 N.Y.S.2d 911, 913 (3d Dep't 1977); Project Release v. Prevost, 722 F.2d 960, 973 (2d Cir.1983). Thus, the availability of qualified immunity turns on whether it was objectively reasonable for the defendants to believe, at the time they examined Glass and in light of the information that they possessed, that Glass was dangerous.
We agree with Judge Platt that the defendants' actions were objectively reasonable. Glass was hospitalized following two reports that he was threatening an individual with a gun and observations of strange behavior. Furthermore, his demeanor was variously described by those who examined him as hostile, guarded, angry, suspicious, uncooperative, and paranoid. Finally, he had an extensive psychiatric history, which included a history of violent behavior, multiple instances of hospitalization for psychiatric care, and a family history of mental illness.
We reject Glass's contention that the defendants acted unreasonably because they failed to ask him about specific events such as the digging around the cesspool. The defendants had considerable evidence of Glass's mental illness. They were aware of his psychiatric history. Mayas, Wong, and Inciong's notes reflected this history, and Sarigumba, Ohson, and Sood submitted uncontroverted affidavits which stated that they were aware of Glass's history. Moreover, Glass was hostile and uncooperative during the examinations. It was reasonable for the...
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