Dick v. Watonwan County

• Decision Date: 11 April 1983
• Docket Number: No. CIV 4-82-116.,CIV 4-82-116.
• Citation: 562 F. Supp. 1083
• Parties: Alexander DICK and Irene Dick, Plaintiffs, v. WATONWAN COUNTY, Tri-County Human Services Board, and Mr. Bill Schutt, its Supervisor of Human Services, Ms. Deborah Hunter, Mental Health Worker, Mr. Jerry Ruppert, title unknown, and John Doe and Mary Roe, whose true names and titles are unknown, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

562 F. Supp. 1083

Alexander DICK and Irene Dick, Plaintiffs, v. WATONWAN COUNTY, Tri-County Human Services Board, and Mr. Bill Schutt, its Supervisor of Human Services, Ms. Deborah Hunter, Mental Health Worker, Mr. Jerry Ruppert, title unknown, and John Doe and Mary Roe, whose true names and titles are unknown, Defendants.

No. CIV 4-82-116.

United States District Court, D. Minnesota, Fourth Division.

April 11, 1983.

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Jerome S. Rice, Gregory T. Spalj, Minneapolis, Minn., for plaintiffs.

Jack M. Fribley, G. Allan Cunningham, Faegre & Benson, Minneapolis, Minn., and William D. Flaskamp and Douglas J. Muirhead, Meagher, Geer, Markham, Anderson, Adamson, Flaskamp & Brennan, Minneapolis, Minn., for defendant Watonwan County.

James B. Wallace, C. Allen Dosland, Gislason, Dosland, Hunter & Malecki, New Ulm, Minn., for defendants Tri-County Human Services Board, Bill Schutt, Deborah Hunter, and Jerry Ruppert.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MacLAUGHLIN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the defendants' alternative motions to amend the judgment, for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or for a new trial, and the plaintiffs' motion for attorneys' fees and costs. The plaintiffs claimed a violation of their constitutional rights stemming from their involuntary confinement to detoxification centers for a period of three days. After a nine day trial, the jury found each of the defendants liable and assessed compensatory damages in the aggregate amount of $1 million and punitive damages in the aggregate amount of $12,000.

FACTS

This case is a study in the abuse of governmental power. On December 5, 1980, as Alexander and Irene Dick, husband and wife, were preparing to leave their home in St. James, Minnesota, for a company Christmas party, a group of uniformed sheriff's deputies appeared at their door bearing orders for their immediate arrest and confinement to detoxification centers. The Dicks, recent immigrants from Scotland, were not intoxicated when they were arrested, nor had they been drinking that day. The Dicks had received no notice of any proceedings against them prior to being served with the orders.

The orders had been issued without a hearing by Watonwan County Court Judge David R. Teigum and were based on petitions for judicial commitment drafted by Watonwan County Attorney Daniel Birkholz and signed by defendant Deborah Hunter, then a mental health worker for the defendant Tri-County Human Services Board (Tri-County Board).

The only grounds for commitment listed in the petitions were statements made by the Dicks' 15-year-old daughter Valerie to Hunter and defendant Jerry Ruppert, then a chemical dependency counselor, employed by the Tri-County Board. Valerie, a ninth grader at the time of the incident who had turned 15 just three weeks earlier, had been referred to Hunter by her school guidance counselor after Valerie had expressed an interest in obtaining foster care. Hunter and Ruppert met with Valerie and discussed with her the problems she said she was having at home. Although Valerie admitted to Hunter and Ruppert that her parents had never abused or neglected her, she insisted that she wanted to be placed in a foster home. At trial, Valerie testified that her motive for obtaining foster care was so that she would be able to "get away with a lot more," such as staying out late at night. During the course of her conversation with Hunter and Ruppert, Valerie told the defendants that her parents drank too much, were endangering their health by drinking, were sometimes physically abusive toward one another, and that her father sometimes drove after drinking. Valerie also recounted having heard of an incident on October 31, 1980, in which her mother allegedly threatened her father with a knife. Finally, she mentioned that her parents were planning to attend a Christmas party that evening.

Without attempting to verify any of Valerie's statements about her parents, and without waiting to consult with their supervisor, defendant William Schutt, who was unavailable at the time, Hunter and Ruppert went to the office of County Attorney Birkholz that same day, December 5, 1980, for the purpose of obtaining commitment petitions against the Dicks. Hunter and Ruppert met with Birkholz and relayed Valerie's statements to him.

Like Hunter and Ruppert, Birkholz made no attempt to verify any of Valerie's statements. The only "confirmation" he sought was to have Valerie brought to his office to repeat her accusations against her parents. At no time did Birkholz, Hunter, or Ruppert attempt to contact the Dicks' 35-year-old daughter Irene Young, also a resident of St. James, to determine if Valerie's statements were true, even though they knew that Irene and her husband lived in St. James and had frequent contact with the Dicks. Hunter and Birkholz testified that they did not contact Irene Young because Valerie asked them not to. The defendants also did not attempt to contact other people who could have provided information about the Dicks such as their employers, physician, or minister. Instead they relied exclusively on Valerie's version of the facts even though both Hunter and Ruppert admittedly were aware that young children sometimes "stretch the truth" in order to get into foster homes.

Based on Valerie's statements, Birkholz, Hunter, and Ruppert jointly decided not only to place Valerie in foster care, but also to seek the Dicks' commitment to detoxification centers. The initial suggestion to confine the Dicks was made by Ruppert, a recovering alcoholic himself who five years earlier had been committed for extended alcoholism treatment. The decision to seek the Dicks' immediate confinement was based on Valerie's statement that her parents were planning to attend a Christmas party that evening. Birkholz, Hunter, and Ruppert wanted to prevent the Dicks from attending the party because of their alleged fear that Alexander Dick might become intoxicated at the party and afterwards attempt to drive. The three officials never considered any alternatives short of immediate confinement to avoid this supposed threat.

That same afternoon, Birkholz had commitment petitions drawn up for both of the Dicks. A dependency petition for Valerie was also prepared. The petition for commitment of Alexander Dick stated:

7. Patient is believed to be inebriate because: Petitioner has been informed of the following facts by Valerie Dick and believes them to be true. That as long as Valerie Dick can remember, her father has been consuming alcohol to excess. That patient drinks to the point of intoxication and passes out on the average of 5 out of 7 nights per week. That patient after he has been drinking, he becomes very vulgar, profane and abusive with other family members. That patient also becomes violent and has, on occasion, becomes sic physically abusive towards his wife. That patient is dangerous to other sic on account of his violent behavior and he also drives a car when he is intoxicated.

The petition for commitment of Irene Dick stated:

7. Patient is believed to be inebriate because: Petitioner has been informed of the following facts by Valerie Dick and believes them to be true. That as long as Valerie Dick can remember, her mother has been consuming alcohol to excess. That patient drinks to the point of intoxication. That when patient has been drinking alcohol she commonly becomes physically ill and throws up, and at times expells sic blood. That patient becomes violent when she has been drinking to excess, and within the last several weeks patient, with a knife in her hand, threatened to stab her husband and the police were called to settle the dispute of the two drinking parents. That the patient is physically unable to care for herself when she becomes ill and is endangering her physical well-being with the protracted, excessive use of alcohol. That the patient is also on medication and should not be using alcohol to excess.

These petitions were riddled with inaccuracies. The most glaring inaccuracy was the statement in Irene Dick's petition that "within the last several weeks, patient, with a knife in her hand, threatened to stab her husband and the police were called to settle the dispute of the two drinking parents." Alexander Dick did summon police officer Larry Bohm to the Dick home on October 31, 1980, for assistance in quieting Irene Dick who had had too much to drink. But Bohm testified that neither of the Dicks were violent on that occasion, and that Alexander Dick was not intoxicated. Although Irene Dick used the words "I'll murder him" with reference to her husband,¹ Bohm regarded the statement as a venting of frustrations rather than as a serious threat. At no time did Irene Dick have a knife or any other weapon in her hand. Renee Snyder, a Tri-County Board social worker, was also called to the Dick home that night. She also testified that the Dicks were not violent and characterized her role that evening as that of "tucking the Dicks into bed." Hunter and Ruppert knew of the October 31 domestic dispute and had access to Snyder's written report of the incident.² Nevertheless, they included in the petition Valerie's statement to them that she had heard that her mother had threatened her father with a knife as if the statement were true, failing to even note on the petition that the statement was not based on Valerie's personal knowledge. The defendants never attempted to contact Snyder or Bohm, the only people who were actually present on the night in question, to see if Valerie's secondhand account was true.

The petition's reference to Irene Dick's vomiting blood was also inaccurate. Mrs. Dick testified that she had coughed up blood on one occasion but that it was related to a hernia operation and had nothing to do with drinking. The statement that Irene Dick was "on medication and should not be drinking to...