Department of Mental Hygiene v. Kirchner

• Decision Date: 02 April 1965
• Citation: 400 P.2d 321,43 Cal.Rptr. 329,62 Cal.2d 586
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 400 P.2d 321 DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HYGIENE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Evelyn KIRCHNER, as Administratrix, etc., Defendant and Appellant. S. F. 21349.

Page 329

43 Cal.Rptr. 329

62 Cal.2d 586, 400 P.2d 321

DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HYGIENE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Evelyn KIRCHNER, as Administratrix, etc., Defendant and Appellant.

S. F. 21349.

Supreme Court of California, In Bank.

April 2, 1965.

Dinkelspiel & Dinkelspiel and Alan A. Dougherty, Redwood City, for defendant and appellant.

Stanley Mosk, Atty. Gen., and John Carl Porter, Deputy Atty. Gen., for plaintiff and respondent.

Spencer M. Williams, County Counsel (Santa Clara), Joseph G. Schumb, Jr., Deputy County Counsel, Richard H. Hoffelt, Wilke, Fleury & Sapunor, Sacramento, William R. MacDougall and Jack M. Merelman, Sacramento, amici curiae on behalf of plaintiff and respondent.

PER CURIAM.

MEMORANDUM OPINION IN RE JURISDICTIONAL CLARIFICATION OF GROUND OF RULING PURSUANT TO MANDATE BY UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI.

The Supreme Court of the United States on March 8, 1965, issued the following 'judgment and mandate':

'The judgment of the Supreme Court of California is vacated and the cause remanded to that court for such further proceedings as may be appropriate under state law.' (Department of Mental Hygiene of California v. Kirchner, 85 S.Ct. 871 (March 8, 1965)).

Preceding and explanatory of the quoted order are the statements hereinafter excerpted:

'The California Supreme Court did not state whether its holding was based on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States or the equivalent provision of the California Constitution, or both. * * * 'An examination of the opinion of the California Supreme Court * * * does not indicate whether that court relied on the State Constitution alone, the Federal Constitution alone, or both; and we would have jurisdiction to review only if the federal ground had been the sole basis for the decision, or the State Constitution was interpreted under what the state court deemed the compulsion of the Federal Constitution. * * * .

'[W]e cannot say with the requisite certainty that the California judgment rested solely on the Fourteenth Amendment, or, amounting to the same thing, that in striking the statute down under the State Constitution the court below acted under what is conceived to be the compulsion of the Federal Constitution [citation]; one or the other determination would be necessary to our exercising jurisdiction. * * * [B]ecause of California law, we cannot hold the case on our calendar until the parties submit a clarifying certificate from the California Supreme Court, see Dixon v. Duffy, 344 U.S. 143, 145, 73 S.Ct. 193, 194, 97 L.Ed. 153, but we can obviate undue delay by vacating the judgment of the California Supreme Court, directing that our mandate issue forthwith, and giving leave to the parties to file a new petition for certiorari * * * if on further proceedings the California Supreme Court holds that its judgment does not rest on an adequate independent nonfederal ground.'

Pursuant to the mandate hereinabove quoted we have reexamined our opinion in the subject case (reported at 60 Cal.2d 716, 36 Cal.Rptr. 488, 388 P.2d 720) and certify as follows:

It has been and is our understanding that the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution, and sections 11 and 21 of article I of the California Constitution, provide generally equivalent but independent protections in their respective jurisdictions.

California Constitution, article I, section 11, requires that 'All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation' and section 21 of the same article specifies that 'No special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted which may not be altered revoked, or repealed by the Legislature; nor shall any citizen, or class of citizens, be granted privileges or...