Perkins v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, 30244 Summary Calendar.
Decision Date | 12 November 1970 |
Docket Number | No. 30244 Summary Calendar.,30244 Summary Calendar. |
Citation | 433 F.2d 1303 |
Parties | James L. PERKINS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES FIDELITY AND GUARANTY COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Gordon & Cleveland, Charles Cleveland, Birmingham, Ala., Love & Love, Huel M. Love, Sr., Talladega, Ala., for appellant.
Gaines & Powers, by Ralph D. Gaines, Jr., Talladega, Ala., for appellee.
Before WISDOM, COLEMAN and SIMPSON, Circuit Judges.
James L. Perkins brought an action for damages in the district court against a judge of the Probate Court of Talladega County, Alabama,1 for alleged wrongful commitment to a state mental institution. The district court granted a defense motion to dismiss on the grounds that the acts complained of constituted a judicial function rather than a ministerial function and therefore under Alabama law the probate judge was immune from civil liability. Broom v. Douglass, 175 Ala. 268, 57 So. 860 (1912). This appeal followed. We affirm.
Perkins alleged that on November 7, 1969, his wife filed in the Probate Court of Talladega County, Alabama, an application to commit him to the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane. It was alleged that no hearing was held, and that Perkins did not receive any notice of the commitment proceedings. On November 17, 1969, the Honorable Joe J. Phillips, Sr., judge of the Probate Court, signed a certificate of the mental disqualification of Perkins and ordered him committed to the state mental hospital. Perkins was arrested and taken to the hospital where he remained until December 19, 1969, when he was released on a writ of habeas corpus issued by the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.
Appellant urges that the Probate Court did not have jurisdiction over the commitment proceedings and this alleged lack of jurisdiction deprives the probate judge of civil immunity. Appellant also contends that the commitment was a ministerial act and not a judicial act, and that therefore under Alabama law the probate judge was not immune from civil liability. These arguments are without merit.
The Probate Court is a court of original and general jurisdiction. Title 13, Section 278, Code of Alabama. The statutory provisions for commitment to a state mental hospital are established in Title 45 of the Code of Alabama, Recompiled 1958. Section 205 of that Title provides:
§ 205. Insanity defined which renders person eligible as patient. — A person shall be adjudged insane who has been found by a proper court sufficiently deficient or defective mentally to require that, for his own or others\' welfare, he be moved to the insane hospital for restraint, care and treatment. Whether the person\'s mental abnormality is sufficiently grave to warrant such procedure is always the question to be decided by the court.
Sections 208 and 210 of the same Chapter provide:
The clear words of the statute grant the Probate Court jurisdiction over the application for commitment....
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Lynch v. Baxley
...to be decided by the court." See O'Barr v. Feist, 292 Ala. 440, 296 So.2d 152, 160 (1974); Perkins v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, 433 F.2d 1303, 1305 (5th Cir. 1970). This question not being before us, we decline to speculate as to the effect of this statute on the equal pr......
-
Sparks v. Duval County Ranch Co., Inc., 77-1249
...464 F.2d 156; Carter v. Duggan, 5 Cir. 1972, 455 F.2d 1156; Collins v. Moore, 5 Cir. 1971, 441 F.2d 550; Perkins v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 5 Cir. 1970, 433 F.2d 1303; Guedry v. Ford, 5 Cir. 1970, 431 F.2d 660; Beard v. Stephens, 5 Cir. 1967, 372 F.2d 685; Carmack v. Gibson, ......
-
Schmidt v. Degen, Civ. A. No. 74-828.
...task "often given to county commissioners, or supervisors, or assessors." 100 U.S. at 348. Cf. Perkins v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 433 F.2d 1303 (5th Cir. 1970) in which the Fifth Circuit rejected the argument that a probate judge's responsibility of deciding whether a person ......
-
O'Barr v. Feist
...the probate court on the application for commitment is a judicial function. In so holding, the court in Perkins v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co., 433 F.2d 1303 (5th Cir. 1970), '* * * In Rainey v. Ridgeway, 151 Ala. 532, 43 So. 843 (1907) it was said: "Judicial power is authority,......