Gurland, Matter of

• Decision Date: 28 November 1955
• Citation: Gurland, Matter of, 146 N.Y.S.2d 830, 286 A.D. 704 (N.Y. App. Div. 1955)
• Parties: Matter of the Application of Sadie GURLAND, Respondent, for review of the proceedings for certification to a State hospital of Irving Gurland, an alleged mentally ill person. Dr. Nathan Beckenstein, Director of the Brooklyn State Hospital, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 830

146 N.Y.S.2d 830

286 A.D. 704

Matter of the Application of Sadie GURLAND, Respondent, for review of the proceedings for certification to a State hospital of Irving Gurland, an alleged mentally ill person Dr. Nathan Beckenstein, Director of the Brooklyn State Hospital, Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.

Nov. 28, 1955.

Isadore Siegel, Asst. Atty. Gen. (James O. Moore, Jr., Sol.Gen., Albany, and Abe Wagman, Asst. Atty. Gen., on the brief; Jacob K. Javits, Atty. Gen.), for appellant.

Herbert L. Levy, New York City, for respondent.

Before NOLAN, P. J., and WENZEL, BELDOCK, MURPHY and UGHETTA, JJ.

MURPHY, Justice.

Respondent is the wife of a patient in the Brooklyn State Hospital committed pursuant to an order of the Supreme Court adjudging him to be a mentally ill person.That order was made on August 26, 1955, upon the petition of a deputy medical superintendent of Kings County Hospital and the certification of two examiners that the patient was in need of care and treatment.The order provided that the patient be confined to the hospital for 'observation' for a period not exceeding sixty days and that upon the filing of a certificate in the office of the county clerk prior to the expiration of that period by the director or the physician in charge or the designated medical officer of the institution that the patient was in need of 'continued care and treatment,' the foregoing order of August 26, 1955, 'shall then become final.'

Upon application of the respondent and prior to the expiration of the sixty-day observation period, another order was made by the Supreme Court, on September 19, 1955, directing a jury trial of the issue of the mental illness of the patient.It is from that order that the Director of the Brooklyn State Hospital appeals, urging that under the provisions of section 76 of the Mental Hygiene Law said application for a jury trial was premature in view of the fact that it was made before the order of August 26, 1955, had become 'final'.The respondent contends that to deny to her a jury trial of her husband's mental illness even before the time when the order of August 26, 1955, became 'final' would be an abridgement of her constitutional rights.

We must look to the provisions of the Mental Hygiene Law for our answers to the question before us.There is no coubt that the court followed the correct procedure in certifying the patient to the Brooklyn State Hospital for observation.That procedure is set forth in section 74 of the Mental Hygiene Law, which, among other things, provides that the original commitment order 'shall become a final order' in the event that a designated medical authority files a certificate in the office of the county clerk at any time prior to the expiration of the sixty-day period that the patient is in need of 'continued care and treatment'.If such a certificate is filed, the patient remains in the institution, or any other institution to which he may be transferred, until his discharge in accordance with the provisions of the Mental Hygiene Law.

It is obvious that the Legislature intended to have the order providing for the sixty-day observation period considered as a temporary order, which would not become final except under circumstances stated above.

Section 76 of the Mental Hygiene Law provides that a jury trial will be available to the patient, or any friend or relative in his behalf, after the order of commitment and observation becomes a final order.Thus a jury trial of the patient's mental illness is not denied to the respondent; it is merely suspended until an intelligent medical determination can be made of the patient's condition, but not to exceed sixty days.Hence, the respondent's application for a jury trial was premature.

Parenthetically and significantly, of course, it should be observed that at any time after the order of commitment for observation was made, even within the sixty-day period, the respondent had the right to a writ of habeas corpus and thereby to receive a hearing before a court of competent jurisdiction, reviewing all the proceedings regarding the patient's detention for treatment as a person mentally ill.Mental Hygiene Law, § 204.This is a safeguard against an improper detention of a mentally ill person and may be availed of by a patient detained in custody upon allegedly inadequate or improper findings, or by some relative or friend in his behalf.

Proceedings under the Mental Hygiene Law do not have the effect of determining that the person is incompetent to manage his affairs or his property.Finch v. Goldstein...