Jillson v. Caprio, 10149.
Decision Date | 13 February 1950 |
Docket Number | No. 10149.,10149. |
Citation | 181 F.2d 523 |
Parties | JILLSON v. CAPRIO. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Mr. H. Mason Welch, Washington, D. C., with whom Messrs. John R. Daily, J. Harry Welch, Washington, D. C., and J. Joseph Barse, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellee.
Before EDGERTON, WILBUR K. MILLER, and WASHINGTON, Circuit Judges.
Appellant's complaint charges among other things that appellee
Appellee, a physician specializing in psychiatry, went to appellant's home on January 25, 1945, without appellant's consent, at the request of her husband, who said she had threatened to kill him and their child. Appellee did not know either appellant or her husband. Her husband, who was present, told appellee he was no longer living with appellant. He had taken away and concealed the child. Appellee talked for some time with appellant, who denied making threats, and with her husband. Appellee called the police. Appellant refused to go with the police because they had no warrant for her arrest but they overpowered her, carried her off, and took her to Gallinger Hospital. Her husband paid appellee fifty dollars.
At the trial appellant called several witnesses including appellee himself. Quotations from his testimony follow:
Officer Bailey testified "the doctor said that in most cases it took the certificate of two doctors and affidavits of two disinterested persons to take someone out of the house, but in this particular case he would not be responsible for what might happen."
The day after appellant's arrest the District Court, on petition of the police, committed her to Gallinger Hospital for examination by the Mental Health Commission. The court discharged her ten days later, the Commission having found her to be "now of sound mind." Commission members who examined her shortly after she was committed are said to have thought her mentally ill then.
The District Court directed a verdict for appellee at the close of appellant's case. We think this was error.
The complaint charges false imprisonment. The evidence would have supported and, in the absence of opposing evidence, required a jury's finding that appellee advised, requested, or "directed," and thereby caused, the police to arrest appellant as an insane person. In that case he is liable for her arrest, and for her imprisonment until she was committed by the court. Not only the perpetrator but the instigator of unlawful violence is fully responsible to its victim. A request or advice, express or implied, that is effective in fact is effective in law; neither command nor authority is necessary.
Congress has provided legal proceedings to determine, with the aid of a Commission on Mental Health, whether "any alleged insane person" in the District of Columbia requires hospitalization. D.C. Code (1940) §§ 21 — 308 to 21 — 316. Congress has permitted the arrest of alleged insane persons without such proceedings in only two sorts of circumstances, both absent here. Section 21 — 326 of the Code authorizes the police to arrest without warrant "any insane person or person of unsound mind" found in a street or other public place. Section 21 — 327 authorizes the superintendent of police to order the arrest without warrant of an "alleged insane person of homicidal or otherwise dangerous tendencies," though not found in a public place, if "two or more responsible residents" make affidavits to their belief that for specified reasons the person is unfit to be at large; "Provided, however, That before the * * * superintendent * * * shall order the apprehension * * * of any person upon the affidavits * * * he shall, in addition thereto, require the certificate of at least two physicians who shall certify that they have...
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