Kendrick v. Metropolitan Psychiatric Center, Inc., 61430

• Decision Date: 28 May 1981
• Docket Number: No. 61430,61430
• Citation: 282 S.E.2d 361,158 Ga.App. 839
• Parties: KENDRICK v. METROPOLITAN PSYCHIATRIC CENTER, INC. et al.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 361

282 S.E.2d 361

158 Ga.App. 839

KENDRICK v. METROPOLITAN PSYCHIATRIC CENTER, INC. et al.

No. 61430.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

May 28, 1981.

Rehearing Denied June 18, 1981.

Ted D. Spears, Atlanta, for appellant.

William S. Shelfer, Jr., Decatur, Lorraine Hess, Hunter S. Allen, Jr., Atlanta, for appellees.

SHULMAN, Presiding Judge.

Plaintiff brought suit against defendants for false imprisonment and for assault incident thereto. Upon the close of plaintiff's presentation of evidence, the trial court granted defendants' motions for directed verdict. We reverse.

The pertinent facts giving rise to plaintiff's action are as follows: Plaintiff, the mother of a voluntary patient at the Metropolitan Psychiatric Center, Inc. ("Center") (an emergency receiving facility under Code Ann. § 88-404.1) went to the Center on March 28, 1978, at approximately 5:00 p. m., in response to a phone call from defendant Parker (an alcohol and drug counselor at the Center), requesting her to come to the Center, presumably to discuss her daughter's treatment and condition with defendant Dr. Uzee. Believing the plaintiff to be an alcoholic in acute withdrawl, Dr. Uzee urged the plaintiff to have herself voluntarily committed. When she refused and attempted to leave the Center, she was forcibly brought back inside by defendants Parker and Shelton. She was then involuntarily admitted into the Center and assigned a room, whereupon she was forced to disrobe and her body and clothing were searched. She was confined in her room until 7:30 a. m. the following morning (approximately 14 and a half hours) and then released.

Defendants' motions for directed verdict were granted on the ground that their actions were in compliance with Code Ann. § 88-401 et seq. The trial court held that, while plaintiff's detention was obviously involuntary, it was not illegal and, thus, did not constitute false imprisonment. See Code Ann. § 105-901, which sets forth the elements of the offense of false imprisonment. We disagree.

The provisions relevant to the instant case read, respectively, as follows: Code Ann. § 88-404.2. Admission to an emergency receiving facility. "(a) Any physician within this State may execute a certificate stating that he has personally examined a person within the preceding 48 hours and found that, based upon observations set forth in the certificate, the person appears to be an alcoholic, a drug dependent individual, or a drug abuser requiring involuntary treatment. A physician's certificate shall expire seven days after it is executed. Any peace officer, within 72 hours after receiving such certificate, shall make diligent efforts to take into custody the person named in the certificate and to deliver him forthwith to the nearest available emergency receiving facility serving the county in which the patient is found, where he shall be received for examination.

"(b) The appropriate court of the county in which a person may be found may issue an order commanding any peace officer to take such person into custody and deliver him forthwith for examination, either to the nearest available emergency facility serving the county in which the patient may be found, where such person shall be received for examination, or to a physician who has agreed to examine such patient and who will provide, where appropriate, a certificate pursuant to subsection (a) of this section to permit delivery of such patient to an emergency receiving facility pursuant to said subsection (a). Such order may only be issued if based either upon an unexpired physician's certificate, as provided in subsection (a) of this section, or upon the affidavits of at least two persons who attest that, within the preceding 48 hours, they have seen the person to be taken into custody and that, based upon observations contained in their affidavit, they have reason to believe such person is an alcoholic, a drug dependent individual, or a drug abuser requiring involuntary treatment. The court order shall expire seven days after it is executed.

"(c) Any peace officer taking into custody and delivering for examination a person, as authorized by subsections (a) or (b) of this section, shall execute a written report detailing the circumstances under which such person was taken into custody. The report and either the physician's certificate or court order authorizing such taking into custody shall be made a part of the patient's clinical record."

Code Ann. § 88-404.4. Examination in emergency receiving facility. "A patient who is received by an emergency receiving facility shall be examined by a physician as soon thereafter as possible, but in any event within 24 hours, and may be given such emergency treatment as is indicated by good medical practice. The patient must be released within 24 hours of his admission unless the examining physician concludes that there is reason to believe that the patient may be an alcoholic, a drug dependent individual, or a drug abuser requiring involuntary treatment and executes a certificate to that effect within 24 hours of the patient's admission to the emergency receiving facility. Within 24 hours of the execution of the physician's certificate, the patient shall be transported, as provided in section 88-402.17, to an evaluating facility where he shall be received under the provisions of section 88-405.4."

It is readily apparent that Code Ann. § 88-404.2(b) is not applicable, since no court order formed the basis for plaintiff's examination at the Center. Nor is subsection (c) applicable, since a peace officer did not "deliver" the plaintiff to the Center. The finding, however, that defendants complied with both §§ 88-404.2(a) and 88-404.4 is necessary to a determination that plaintiff's detention and confinement were lawful.

While we would agree with d...