Clark v. Donahue

Decision Date31 March 1995
Docket NumberNo. IP 92-237-C-B/S,IP 92-238-C-B/S.,IP 92-237-C-B/S
PartiesElizabeth A. CLARK, individually, and Elizabeth A. Clark, as Personal representative of The Estate of June Christy Highsaw, Plaintiffs, v. James M. DONAHUE, M.D., Ruth Stanley, Carolyn Mott, R.N., Joyce Currens, R.N., Garner Johnson, and Obie Turner, Defendants. Annabelle WOODS, by her Guardian Sandra SCHAFFER, and Norma Shane, as Personal Representative of The Estate of Lydia Kay Shelby, Plaintiffs, v. James M. DONAHUE, M.D., Ruth Stanley, Joyce Currens, R.N., Nasser M. Shinwarie and Paula Smith, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana

C. Dennis Wegner, C. Dennis Wegner & Assoc., P.C., Indianapolis, IN, for plaintiffs.

John Laramore, Deputy Atty. Gen., John T. Hume, III, Randall C. Helmen, Hume Smith Geddes & Green, Bruce L. Kamplain, Norris Choplin & Schroeder, Indianapolis, IN, for defendants.

CONSOLIDATED ENTRY

BARKER, Chief Judge.

These two cases involve claims based upon the deaths of two patients at Central State Hospital. Currently before the Court are various defense motions for summary judgment. For the reasons stated below, the motions are denied.

I. Background

June Christy Highsaw was admitted to Central State Hospital ("CSH") in July, 1970, as a result of a voluntary admission agreement signed by her mother, Elizabeth Clark. At the time she was admitted, Highsaw was approximately 14 years old. Highsaw died at the age of 35 while still a patient at CSH. Lydia Kay Shelby was admitted to CSH in December, 1971, at the age of approximately 15 years old. Shelby remained at CSH until her death at 40 years of age. Plaintiffs allege that Highsaw and Shelby died as the result of severe medical and physical mistreatment.

II. Discussion

Defendants James M. Donahue, M.D., Garner Johnson, Obie Turner, Ruth Stanley, and Paula Smith (collectively, "Defendants") argue that they are entitled to summary judgment on Plaintiffs' claims because Plaintiffs were not involuntarily admitted to CSH. That is, Defendants contend that voluntarily admitted mental patients have no substantive due process rights to be protected from mistreatment while patients at a state hospital. Additionally, Defendants assert that they are entitled to summary judgment in the Highsaw case because Highsaw's mother, Elizabeth Clark, signed a "hold harmless agreement" at the time Highsaw was committed to CSH.

Summary judgment is proper where:

the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.

Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 56(c). In passing on a motion for summary judgment, the judge's role is not to evaluate the weight of the evidence or determine the truth of the matter, but it is instead to decide whether there is a genuine issue of material fact for trial. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The burden rests squarely on the party moving for summary judgment to show "that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). If doubts remain as to the existence of a material fact, then those doubts should be resolved in favor of the nonmoving party and summary judgment should be denied. See Wilson v. Williams, 997 F.2d 348, 350 (7th Cir.1993); Wolf v. City of Fitchburg, 870 F.2d 1327, 1330 (7th Cir. 1989).

Defendants base their main argument on DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Services, 489 U.S. 189, 109 S.Ct. 998, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989), and its progeny. DeShaney addresses the duty of the state "to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens against invasion by private actors." 489 U.S. at 195, 109 S.Ct. at 1003. At issue in DeShaney is under what "circumstances the Constitution imposes upon the State affirmative duties of care and protection with respect to certain individuals" such that the state is obligated to protect such individuals from themselves and others (i.e., non-state actors). DeShaney concludes that the state does owe such a duty where certain "`special relationships' are created or assumed by the State with respect to particular individuals." Id. at 197, 109 S.Ct. at 1004.

In the substantive due process analysis, it is the State's affirmative act of restraining the individual's freedom to act on his own behalf — through incarceration, institutionalization, or other similar restraint of personal liberty — which is the "deprivation of liberty" triggering the protections of the Due Process Clause....

Id. at 200, 109 S.Ct. at 1006. Therefore, the "special relationships" exist with respect to incarcerated prisoners and involuntarily committed mental patients. Id. at 199, 109 S.Ct. at 1005 (citations omitted).

Relying on DeShaney, several courts have held that voluntarily committed mental patients are not owed any constitutional duty to substantive due process rights by the state. See, e.g., Monahan v. Dorchester Counseling Center, Inc., 770 F.Supp. 43 (D.Mass.1991), aff'd, 961 F.2d 987 (1st Cir.1992) (claims of voluntarily committed mental patient who was injured when he jumped from a van driven by a state employee while being transferred from a state mental health center to a state group home); Ridlen v. Four County Counseling Center, 809 F.Supp. 1343 (N.D.Ind.1992) (claims on behalf of person who, while receiving outpatient mental treatment, killed himself); Fialkowski v. Greenwich Home for Children, Inc., 921 F.2d 459 (3d Cir.1990), reh'g denied (1991) (claims on behalf of resident of community living facility who choked to death while eating); Jordan v. Tennessee, 738 F.Supp. 258 (M.D.Tenn.1990) (claims on behalf of voluntarily committed mental patient who wandered away from his unit and drowned in a pond on the facility's grounds). Defendants contend that these cases stand for the proposition that where a state has not involuntarily committed a mental patient the state has not taken an affirmative act which would invoke the protections of substantive due process rights. Therefore, Defendants argue, as a general rule, no substantive due process claims may be brought on behalf of mental patients who were voluntarily committed.

The instant case is distinguishable from the cases cited above for at least two reasons. First, the patients in the instant cases are not alleged to have been harmed by themselves or other non-state actors. Instead, Plaintiffs contend that Shelby and Highsaw were affirmatively mistreated by state actors.1 Defendants do not direct the Court to any cases in which voluntarily admitted mental patients have been held to have no substantive due process claim where the harm to the patient was allegedly caused by the affirmative mistreatment (i.e., deliberate indifference) of state actors. In such situations the DeShaney analysis becomes almost moot because the state action element of the plaintiff's claim is clearly established.

Second, even if the nature of a mental patient's commitment creates the patient's due process rights against mistreatment by a state actor, Defendants have not proven that the nature of Highsaw and Shelby's commitments was voluntary at the time of the alleged mistreatment. That is, even though Plaintiffs concede that the guardians of Highsaw and Shelby did initially voluntarily commit them to the state, the relevant inquiry must focus upon the actual circumstances of Plaintiffs' confinement.

The Seventh Circuit has acknowledged that it is possible for a commitment to be voluntary in name only:

It is highly unlikely that a patient who is schizophrenic, mute, and severely depressed and out of touch with reality can simply walk out of a VA hospital on his own.... It is also unclear ... whether plaintiff's relatives either could have removed or were legally obligated as guardians to remove plaintiff from the VA hospital if they were dissatisfied with the treatment.... Thus it appears that plaintiff, though technically a "voluntary" patient, was a "de facto involuntary" patient because of his incompetence.

Lojuk v. Quandt, 706 F.2d 1456, 1466 (7th Cir.1983) (citations omitted). Several courts have since held, in applying DeShaney, that, depending on the nature of the specific conditions at issue, institutionalization which originated voluntarily may at some point involve restraint of personal liberty sufficient to trigger the protections of the due process clause. See, e.g., Estate of Cassara v. Illinois, 853 F.Supp. 273, 279 (N.D.Ill.1994); United States v. Pennsylvania, 832 F.Supp. 122, 124-25 (E.D.Pa.1993); Wilson v. Formigoni, 832 F.Supp. 1152, 1157 (N.D.Ill.1993), rev'd on other grounds, 42 F.3d 1060 (7th Cir. 1994);2 Halderman v. Pennhurst State School & Hosp., 784 F.Supp. 215, 222 (E.D.Pa.), aff'd without opinion, 977 F.2d 568 (3d Cir.1992).

The nature of the discretion afforded state officials may be extensive because of the patient's voluntary act, but the court is not convinced that the discretion of state officials is wide enough to sanction the deliberate indifference to the patient's medical needs, or the patient's right to safe conditions, while the patient is incapacitated or restrained in the mental health facility.

Estate of Cassara, 853 F.Supp. at 279. Therefore, Plaintiffs' claims in the instant cases may not be rejected simply because their guardians signed voluntary commitment papers.

Defendants also argue that they are entitled to summary judgment on all claims relating to Highsaw because of the agreement her mother, Elizabeth Clark, signed at the time Highsaw was committed. On July 14, 1970, Elizabeth Clark completed and signed an "Application for Voluntary Admission to Central State Hospital" (the "Application"). The Application contains the following...

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3 cases
  • Triplett v. Wash. State Dep't of Soc. & Health Servs.
    • United States
    • Washington Court of Appeals
    • 21 Abril 2016
    ...‘the state action element of the plaintiff's claim is clearly established.’ ” CP at 78–79 (emphasis added) (quoting Clark v. Donahue, 885 F.Supp. 1159, 1161–62 (1995) ); and see Br. of Resp't at 23.¶ 50 In Clark, two mental patients voluntarily admitted to a state hospital died while in res......
  • Torisky v. Schweiker
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit
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    ...should be treated as involuntary residents for purposes of Youngberg), aff'd 977 F.2d 568 (3d Cir. 1992); Clark v. Donahue, 885 F.Supp. 1159, 1162 (S.D.Ind.1995) ("[E]ven though Plaintiffs concede that the guardians . . . did initially voluntarily commit them to the state, the relevant inqu......
  • Brown by Brown v. Kennedy Krieger Institute, Inc., CIV. H-96-1829.
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    • U.S. District Court — District of Maryland
    • 20 Enero 1998
    ...his incompetence, he was a "de facto involuntary" resident. See Lojuk v. Quandt, 706 F.2d 1456, 1466 (7th Cir.1983); Clark v. Donahue, 885 F.Supp. 1159, 1162 (S.D.Ind.1995). As this Court previously held in its Memorandum and Order of June 23, 1997, the Supreme Court's decision in DeShaney ......

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