Anonymous v. State, 34975
| Decision Date | 16 January 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 34975,34975 |
| Parties | ANONYMOUS, Claimant-Appellant, v. The STATE of New York, Respondent. Claim |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Claimant-appellant in pro. per.
Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., Albany , for respondent.
Before BERGAN, P. J., and COON, GIBSON, REYNOLDS and TAYLOR, JJ.
At the instance of his father, claimant, aged 34 years and unmarried, was admitted on April 2, 1955 to Kings County Hospital. Upon the petition of the deputy medical superintendent of this institution he was adjudged to be mentally ill by an order of the Supreme Court granted upon notice and certified to the Brooklyn State Hospital for treatment pursuant to the provisions of the Mental Hygiene Law. Claimant was never adjudicated incompetent to manage himself or his affairs under the provisions of article 81 of the Civil Practice Act and no committee of his person or property was ever appointed.
Soon after his admittance to the mental institution on April 15, 1955 a senior staff psychiatrist to whom the case was assigned there interviewed his father and sister for the purpose of procuring information concerning his background for use in analyzing his condition. On this occasion the parent consented in writing that any of the recognized types of shock therapy or a combination thereof be administered to the patient by physicians attached to the hospital. Thereafter psychological examinations were conducted. It appears that following the collation of the salient medical and anamnestic facts a panel of five staff psychiatrists which included the assigned physician, acting in concert, diagnosed claimant's condition as dementia praecox, mixed type, featured by catatonic and paranoid schizophrenia and concluded that the treatment of the illness by insulin coma therapy would likely produce the most favorable result. The recommended regimen was begun on April 28, 1955 and completed on July 22, 1955. Claimant's mental condition had improved sufficiently on October 5, 1955 to warrant his release from the hospital to his father's home on a convalescent status and his full discharge from post-hospital clinical treatment on April 1, 1958.
On December 29, 1959 he filed a claim against the State for damages alleging that in the administration of the shock therapy without authorized consent thereto a physical assault was committed. After a trial the Court of Claims held that the treatment had been lawfully undertaken and dismissed the claim.
On appeal claimant urges as grounds for reversal that prior consent to the shock treatment involved should have been obtained on his behalf from a court-appointed guardian or from both parents and that its utilization without such authorization as a matter of law constituted a bodily assault.
Upon the commitment of claimant to the State hospital...
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