Dick v. Watonwan County

• Decision Date: 01 December 1982
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 4-82-116.
• Citation: 551 F. Supp. 983
• Parties: Alexander DICK and Irene Dick, Plaintiffs, v. WATONWAN COUNTY, Watonwan County Welfare Department 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, Watonwan County Sheriff, V.H. Engdahl, and Public School District # 840 and Ms. Maureen McCarthy, Guidance Counselor, and Mr. Daniel Birkholz, Watonwan County Attorney, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

551 F. Supp. 983

Alexander DICK and Irene Dick, Plaintiffs, v. WATONWAN COUNTY, Watonwan County Welfare Department 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, Watonwan County Sheriff, V.H. Engdahl, and Public School District # 840 and Ms. Maureen McCarthy, Guidance Counselor, and Mr. Daniel Birkholz, Watonwan County Attorney, Defendants.

Civ. No. 4-82-116.

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

December 1, 1982.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

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

Jack M. Fribley, G. Allan Cunningham, Faegre & Benson, Minneapolis, and Douglas J. Muirhead, Meagher, Geer, Markham, Anderson, Adamson, Flaskamp & Brennan, Minneapolis, Minn., for defendants Watonwan County, Sheriff Engdahl, and Daniel Birkholz.

James B. Wallace, C. Allen Dosland, Gislason, Dosland, Hunter & Malecki, New Ulm, Minn., for defendants Watonwan County Welfare Dept., Bill Schutt, Deborah Hunter, and Jerry Ruppert.

Gerald L. Maschka, Farrish, Johnson, Maschka & Hottinger, Mankato, Minn., for defendants Independent School Dist. # 840 and Maureen McCarthy.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MacLAUGHLIN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the defendants' separate motions for summary judgment. The plaintiffs' amended complaint alleges a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 based on the plaintiffs' involuntary commitment to detoxification centers in December of 1980. The plaintiffs also allege causes of action for false arrest and false imprisonment and for conspiracy to deprive the plaintiffs of their constitutional rights. The defendants claim immunity from suit as well as other defenses.

FACTS

On December 5, 1980, the plaintiffs, Alexander and Irene Dick, husband and wife, were arrested at their home in St. James, Minnesota, by defendant Watonwan County Sheriff V.H. Engdahl and several of his deputies. The sheriff was executing two orders for apprehension and confinement issued without a hearing by Watonwan County Court Judge David R. Teigum. The orders were based on petitions for judicial commitment which alleged that the Dicks were "inebriates." The petitions were drafted by defendant Watonwan County Attorney Daniel Birkholz¹ and signed by defendant Deborah Hunter, then an employee of the defendant Watonwan County Welfare Department.² The petitions were based almost exclusively on information supplied by the Dicks' 15-year-old daughter Valerie. It is undisputed that the Dicks were not intoxicated when they were arrested.

The Dicks were transported in marked police cars to separate detoxification centers. There they were stripped of their personal possessions, including Irene Dick's blood-pressure medicine. While confined at the center, Irene Dick was required to attend movies on alcohol abuse. She was also visited by defendant Jerry Ruppert, then a chemical dependency counselor employed by the Watonwan County Welfare Department, who allegedly tried to pressure her into voluntarily committing herself for alcohol treatment.

The Dicks were confined at the detoxification centers from the evening of Friday, December 5, 1980, until Monday, December 8, 1980, when a probable cause hearing was held before Judge Teigum. At the conclusion of that hearing, the Dicks were released and the proceedings were continued for six months pursuant to a stipulation requiring the Dicks to attend alcohol counseling sessions. The Dicks attended two or three sessions. On June 12, 1981, the county dismissed both cases against the Dicks.

The Dicks' arrest and commitment arose out of conversations the Dicks' daughter, Valerie, had at school with defendant Maureen McCarthy, a guidance counselor employed at the time by defendant Public School District # 840. Valerie, who was 15 at the time of the Dicks' commitment, is the youngest of six children in the Dick family. The Dicks emigrated from Scotland in 1978. Their 35-year-old daughter, Irene Young, is married and also lives in St. James. Their four sons live in Scotland. Valerie's conversations with McCarthy were part of a program of group discussions at St. James High School which centered on students' problems at home and at school.

On December 4, 1980, while talking privately with McCarthy, Valerie raised the subject of foster care. Valerie expressed a desire to get out of her home for a while because of her parents' frequent arguments — arguments which usually concerned Valerie's staying out late at night. McCarthy and Valerie also discussed Valerie's parents' drinking. Deposition of Valerie Dick, May 10, 1982, at 31-35.

Later that day, McCarthy telephoned defendant Deborah Hunter, a mental health worker for the Watonwan County Welfare Department, to discuss whether Valerie would be eligible for foster care. Hunter told McCarthy there did not appear to be sufficient grounds to remove Valerie from her home, but that she would check into the matter. Deposition of Maureen McCarthy, Aug. 5, 1982, at 69.

On the morning of Friday, December 5, 1980, Hunter called McCarthy to say that Hunter had discovered additional information which might provide sufficient grounds to seek a dependency petition so that Valerie could be placed in foster care. Id. at 72. The additional information was a record showing that the local police had been called to the Dick household on October 31, 1980, to settle a domestic dispute.

Later that morning, Hunter, McCarthy, and defendant Jerry Ruppert, a chemical dependency counselor also employed at the time by the Watonwan County Welfare Department, met with Valerie in McCarthy's office at the school. Valerie told the three defendants about her parents' drinking and about the arguments at home. Deposition of Valerie Dick, May 10, 1982, at 36.

After the conversation at the school, McCarthy, Hunter, and Ruppert took Valerie over to the office of County Attorney Birkholz. Hunter and Ruppert first met with Birkholz alone and relayed the information Valerie had given them. The plaintiffs allege that Hunter and Ruppert distorted and exaggerated Valerie's statements while talking to Birkholz. Later, Valerie was brought in and Birkholz interviewed her personally. McCarthy, the school guidance counselor, was not present during either meeting.

There is a considerable dispute over what Valerie told Birkholz, Hunter, and Ruppert about her home life and her parents' drinking. Birkholz' version is that Valerie stated that her parents drank five nights a week, usually to excess, that her mother would sometimes throw up blood after drinking, that after drinking excessively her parents would often become verbally abusive towards one another, and that her mother frequently woke her up in the middle of the night after drinking to talk, but was often unable to remember the conversations in the morning. Deposition of Daniel Birkholz, Apr. 8, 1982, at 51-57. Further, Birkholz testified that Valerie told him that she had on one occasion seen her father shake her mother during an argument, that she wanted to get out of the house that day because her parents were attending her father's company Christmas party that evening and she did not want to be home when they returned in case they came home intoxicated, and that her father sometimes drove after drinking. Id.

Valerie's version of her statements to Birkholz, Hunter, and Ruppert is much different. In her deposition, Valerie denies saying that her parents drank to excess, that she was afraid for her safety, and that she did not want to return home. Deposition of Valerie Dick, May 10, 1982, at 46-47. She also denies saying that her parents were physically abusive toward one another, and that her father drove while intoxicated. Id. at 56, 63.

At the conclusion of these meetings, Birkholz had petitions for commitment prepared for Alexander and Irene Dick.³ The petitions incorporated Birkholz' version of the above facts.⁴ Birkholz testified that the decision to seek involuntary commitment of the Dicks was "a joint decision by Deborah Hunter, Jerry Ruppert and myself ...." Deposition of Daniel Birkholz, Apr. 8, 1982, at 58.

Valerie refused to sign either commitment petition because she "did not want to go through with what was going on there." Deposition of Valerie Dick, May 10, 1982, at 65. Valerie also testified that, although she skimmed the petitions and believed that many of the statements contained in them were untrue, she did not tell Birkholz that any of the statements were untrue because she was too upset. Id. at 54, 60. Deborah Hunter signed the petitions after Valerie's refusal to do so.

None of the defendants attempted to verify any of Valerie's statements concerning her parents' drinking. Birkholz' explanation for not contacting Irene Young, Valerie's 35-year-old sister who also lived in St. James, was that since Valerie had told him that Irene and her husband were drinking companions of the Dicks, "we didn't feel we could get an objective opinion from the Youngs ...." Deposition of Daniel Birkholz, Apr. 8, 1982, at 39. Birkholz also did not check Alexander Dick's driving record to see if he had any arrests or convictions for drunk driving, id. at 74-75, even though the concern that Alexander Dick might drive while intoxicated was one of the main reasons Birkholz, Hunter, and Ruppert decided to seek the Dicks' immediate commitment, id. at 69-70.

Finally, it is undisputed that the Dicks were not intoxicated on the afternoon of their arrest. There was no indication they had been drinking, see Deposition of Sheriff V.H. Engdahl, Apr. 8, 1982, at 21; nor were there any signs of violence at the Dick household, see id. at 26-27. The Dicks complied with the commitment orders peacefully. Id. at 18.

DISCUSSION

A. Minnesota Judicial Commitment Law

At the time of the Dicks' commitment, Minnesota law authorized the temporary...