Oseing, Matter of, 64316

• Decision Date: 17 September 1980
• Docket Number: No. 64316,64316
• Citation: 296 N.W.2d 797
• Parties: In the Matter of Vert OSEING, Alleged to be seriously mentally impaired. Appeal of Vert OSEING.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 797

296 N.W.2d 797

In the Matter of Vert OSEING, Alleged to be seriously mentally impaired Appeal of Vert OSEING.

No. 64316.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Sept. 17, 1980.

Lynn Fillenwarth and Julie Fillenwarth of Fillenwarth & Fillenwarth, Estherville, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., Thomas Mann, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., and Kendall Surfass, Asst. County Atty., Estherville, for the State.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C. J., and LeGRAND, HARRIS, McCORMICK and LARSON, JJ.

McCORMICK, Justice.

In this case of first impression, we must determine the elements of proof of serious mental impairment justifying involuntary hospitalization of mentally ill persons, the nature of our review of a commitment order, and the sufficiency of evidence to support commitment in the present situation. We find no reversible error and therefore affirm the trial court.

The history and present status of civil commitment of the mentally ill in Iowa has been traced in a number of writings. In chronological order, they include: Note, Incarceration of the Mentally Ill in Iowa, 33 Iowa L. Rev. 390 (1948); Note, Procedural Aspects of Commitment of the Mentally Ill in Iowa, 35 Iowa L.Rev. 270 (1950); Contemporary Studies Project: Facts and Fallacies About Iowa Civil Commitment, 55 Iowa L.Rev. 895 (1970); Bezanson, Involuntary Treatment of the Mentally Ill in Iowa: The 1975 Legislation, 61 Iowa L.Rev. 261 (1975); Note, Due Process Deficiencies in Iowa's Civil Commitment Procedure, 64 Iowa L.Rev. 65 (1978); Contemporary Studies Project: Involuntary Hospitalization in Iowa: The Failure of the 1975 Legislation, 64 Iowa L.Rev. 1284 (1979).

In 1975 the legislature adopted a comprehensive revision of civil commitment procedures. See 1975 Session, 66th G.A., ch. 139. This is our present statute, chapter 229, The Code. The statute reflects a change in approach to the involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill. Involuntary commitment deprives an individual of his liberty through coercive state action, and the statute imposes stringent substantive and procedural limitations on the exercise of the State's power. In so doing, it responds to a national concern about the deprivations endured by civilly committed persons. See, generally, Developments in the Law: Civil Commitment of the Mentally Ill, 87 Harv.L.Rev. 1190 (1974).

The present case involves Vert Oseing, a 29-year-old man with a history of commitments for mental illness. His illness has been diagnosed as schizophrenia, paranoid type. Prior to the present case, he was committed for treatment on nine occasions, starting in 1968. Only one of those commitments was voluntary.

This action was initiated on September 20, 1979, by his mother, Marion Evenson, who filed an application seeking Vert's involuntary hospitalization pursuant to section 229.6. He was removed from his job and immediately confined in the Mental Health Institute at Cherokee. See § 229.11. A commitment hearing was held by a referee on September 24, resulting in an order of commitment. See §§ 229.11, .12, .21. Vert appealed to a judge of the district court as provided in section 229.21(4). After a de novo trial pursuant to section 229.21(4), Vert was again ordered committed. This appeal is from that order. See § 229.17.

I. The elements of serious mental impairment. Proceedings for involuntary hospitalization may be commenced by the filing by "any interested person" of a verified application, accompanied by required supporting data, which alleges as a basis for commitment that the respondent is "seriously mentally impaired." § 229.6. This ground is defined in section 229.1(2):

"Seriously mentally impaired" or "serious mental impairment" describes the condition of a person who is afflicted with mental illness and because of that illness lacks sufficient judgment to make responsible decisions with respect to his or her hospitilization or treatment, and who:

a. Is likely to physically injure himself or herself or others if allowed to remain at liberty without treatment; or

b. Is likely to inflict serious emotional injury on members of his or her family or others who lack reasonable opportunity to avoid contact with the afflicted person if the afflicted person is allowed to remain at liberty without treatment.

"Mental illness" is defined in section 229.1(1) and "serious emotional injury" is defined in section 229.1(3).

Commitment is not warranted unless the elements of serious mental impairment are proven by clear and convincing evidence. § 229.12(3); Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 99 S.Ct. 1804, 60 L.Ed.2d 323 (1979).

The definition of serious mental impairment contains three express elements. The respondent must be found to be (1) "afflicted with a mental illness," consequently (2) to lack "sufficient judgment to make responsible decisions with respect to his or her hospitalization or treatment," and (3) to be likely, if allowed to remain at liberty, to inflict physical injury on himself or others or to inflict emotional injury on the designated class of persons.

The parties agree these elements must be established, but they disagree about whether a fourth element is required by implication. Vert contends the State must also prove the mental illness is amenable to treatment. The State argues otherwise.

Vert's contention is supported by the language in the definition of serious mental impairment which requires a finding that the respondent is likely to inflict physical or emotional injury "if allowed to remain at liberty without treatment." (emphasis supplied). See § 229.1(2)(a), (b). However, the statute presupposes that some seriously mentally impaired persons must be placed in full-time custody and care even though they are not amenable to treatment. Section 229.14(4) requires the chief medical officer of the hospital to recommend to the court an alternative placement for such persons.

If carried to its logical extreme, Vert's contention would result in a situation where persons with untreatable mental illness could not be involuntarily committed regardless of the risk they pose to themselves or others. Detention of those persons presumably could occur only after their conviction of a felony. See chapter 812, The Code.

In interpreting chapter 229, we are guided by familiar principles. See Doe v. Ray, 251 N.W.2d 496, 500-01 (Iowa 1977). Applying them here, we do not believe the legislature intended amenability to treatment to be an element in the State's proof. Rather, it is an issue to be addressed in the report of the chief medical officer. That report must be made within fifteen days after the person's hospitalization based upon the complete psychiatric evaluation required by section 229.13. At that point section 229.14(4) comes into play. If the illness is not treatable, an alternative placement may be ordered pursuant to that provision. If the statute did not operate in this manner, it would include no basis for initial involuntary commitment of dangerous persons not amenable to treatment. Yet it would include a basis for transferring such persons from a hospital to an alternative placement after fifteen days. We do not believe the legislature intended this anomaly. Nor do we believe the legislature intended that untreatable dangerously mentally ill persons must remain at large. We hold that amenability to treatment is relevant on the issue of continued hospitalization but not an element which must be proved in advance of initial commitment.

II. The nature of our review. An involuntary commitment proceeding is a special action which is triable to the court. See In re Brewer, 224 Iowa 773, 777, 276 N.W. 766, 768 (1937); § 611.2, The Code. The nature of our review depends upon whether it is triable as an ordinary or equitable proceeding. Special actions are tried as ordinary actions at law unless made triable in equity by statute or pursuant to section 611.4. Chapter 229 has no provision making the action triable in equity. The provision in section 229.21(4) for trial de novo in district court of an appeal from a referee's commitment order does not make the proceeding equitable. It merely substitutes the de novo trial for the former statutory right to trial by jury. See In re Brewer, 224 Iowa at 778, 276 N.W. at 768.

Therefore we must determine whether the proceeding comes within section 611.4. It provides:

The plaintiff may prosecute his action by equitable proceedings in all cases where courts of equity, before the adoption of this Code, had jurisdiction, and must so proceed in all cases where such jurisdiction was exclusive.

The decisive issue is whether courts of equity, before adoption of the Code, had jurisdiction over involuntary civil commitment proceedings.

This issue was addressed in Gahwiller v. Gahwiller, 237 Iowa 1291, 25 N.W.2d 485 (1946), where the court held that the proceeding is a special action which was not historically triable in equity. The court said: "It is neither a criminal action nor an action in equity. It is not triable de novo here, since there is no provision in the statute to that effect." Id. at 1299, 25 N.W.2d at 489.

History shows that commitment proceedings originated from the concept of parens patriae in the English constitutional system. The sovereign was the general guardian of the insane. This responsibility of the King was part of his "royal prerogative." "In the United States, the 'royal prerogative' and the 'parens patriae' function of the King passed to the States." Hawaii v. Standard Oil Co., 405 U.S. 251, 257, 92 S.Ct. 885, 888, 31 L.Ed.2d 184, 189 (1972).

In the English system, the King delegated authority to his chancellor "to issue a writ or commission to inquire as to the fact of idiocy or lunacy and the method of procedure was by petition suggesting the lunacy." Hughes v. Jones, 116 N.Y. 67, 75, 22 N.E. 446, 448 (1889). The power belonged to the chancellor rather than the chancery court. 4 Pomeroy's Equity Jurisprudence § 1311 at 883 ...