Rice v. Gray
Decision Date | 01 December 1930 |
Docket Number | No. 17006.,17006. |
Citation | 34 S.W.2d 567 |
Parties | JOHN L. RICE, RESPONDENT, v. DR. M.S. GRAY ET AL., APPELLANTS. |
Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court of Buchanan County. — Hon. Eugene Silverman, Special Judge.
AFFIRMED.
S.P. Davisson and Eastin & McNeely for respondent.
Brown, Douglas & Brown and Thompson & Griswold for appellants.
This is an action in damages, both actual and punitive, for alleged conspiracy and false incarceration in the state insane asylum No. 2, at St. Joseph, Mo.
The suit was instituted originally against Dr. M.S. Gray, Dr. F.G. Weary, C.L. (Lee) Rice (plaintiff's son), Clyde Paxton (plaintiff's son-in-law) and Anna Rice (plaintiff's wife). During the progress of the trial the cause was dismissed against Anna Rice for the reason that the law does not permit a husband to maintain a suit in tort against his wife. The facts of record are that plaintiff and his family resided in St. Joseph and for a number of years plaintiff was employed as stationary engineer. He had accumulated some property consisting of dwelling houses which he let, said property being held as estates in the entirety by him and his wife. There were deeds of trust against these properties but rentals took care of the taxes and interest and paid something on the principal, but in order to accomplish this result, plaintiff practiced more or less rigid economy.
Some ten or twelve years prior to the occurrences giving rise to this suit, plaintiff developed a case of St. Vitus's dance, the exact nature of which is here in dispute. The testimony shows this disease is manifested by involuntary and uncontrollable twitching and jerking of the muscles; that medical science makes two classifications of these symptoms, namely, Huntington's chorea and Sidenham's chorea; that the word chorea may mean merely St. Vitus's dance; Sidenham's chorea or Huntington's chorea with psychosis, or mental derangement, insanity. The disputed point is whether plaintiff was afflicted with Sidenham's chorea or Huntington's chorea with psychosis. The record discloses that plaintiff's involuntary jerking of muscles became so advanced that his services as a stationary engineer were no longer desired by employers and he was thereafter without employment and remained at home. His family consisted of his wife, who lived in the home, his son, defendant Lee Rice, who lived near; his daughter, Mrs. Paxton, who with her husband, defendant herein, lived part of the time in the home of plaintiff; and another daughter who was employed and lived at the home.
It appears plaintiff and his wife entered into an agreement that each was to assume certain expenses in connection with the household. The wife kept some boarders and sold milk from a cow they kept and from funds thus derived paid the bills for groceries and other expenses not clearly defined in the evidence. Plaintiff was to supply the coal and pay the taxes and interest charges.
The evidence in behalf of defendants shows plaintiff was nervous, high tempered, easily excited and disturbed and at times he was morose. The testimony shows the house in which the family lived was without modern improvements such as a furnace, city water and inside toilet conveniences which the family desired but to the instalment of which plaintiff objected because of the expense and because it would be necessary to tear up the lawn. This situation produced some discord in the family. That on March 30 or 31, 1926, there was a deep snow falling, or had fallen, when defendant Paxton came home and found no fire in the stove in the sitting room; that he proceeded to use kindling wood which plaintiff had prepared to build a fire; that plaintiff objected and the incident furnished the basis of another family dispute, the exact details of which need not be here stated. About the same time, Lee Rice came to plaintiff's home and there was something of a disturbance between him and his father about there being no coal for fire. Plaintiff ordered his son to leave the house and not return, and defendant's testimony is to the effect plaintiff threatened to get a gun and shoot Lee, but this was denied by plaintiff.
It appears a family conference was held in which plaintiff did not participate and it was decided plaintiff needed some medical treatment and should be taken to the hospital for the insane for such treatment, as a pay patient; but, not knowing how to proceed in the matter, defendant Lee Rice consulted defendant Dr. M.S. Gray who advised that such a procedure required an application and a verified certificate of two physicians; that necessary blanks could be had at the asylum No. 2. Thereupon defendants Lee Rice and Clyde Paxton went to the asylum, got the blanks and had Doctors Gray and Weary sign them. The certificate was as follows:
The certificate then was taken to a notary public who called the signers over the telephone, verified the signatures and attached his jurat and seal thereto. The application for plaintiff's admission to the institution was executed by plaintiff's wife, and is as follows:
The application and physicians' certificate were filed with the officials of State Hospital number Two, as a necessary procedure. On April 1, 1926, the services of the sheriff of said county were secured by defendant Lee Rice and said sheriff and Lee Rice went to the home of plaintiff and without notice to him, took him to said asylum and turned him over to the authorities thereof and he was confined. During the period in which he was confined, he was twice paroled, first from July 3 to July 6, 1926, and again from July 29, 1926 to January 17, 1927. With the exception of the periods covered by these paroles, plaintiff was in said hospital until May 24, 1927, when he was released by the circuit court of Buchanan county on a writ of habeas corpus.
The record shows that on receiving a pay patient in the hospital for the insane, there is a requirement that a bond for the charges and expenses must be executed. Accordingly a bond was made with Anna Rice, as principal, and defendants C.L. Rice and Clyde Paxton, as sureties. During the time plaintiff remained in the asylum, the record shows his family installed a furnace in the house, put in plumbing equipment, and allowed the properties to fall in arrears for taxes and payments of interest. On the day plaintiff was discharged by writ of habeas corpus, Anna Rice filed an information in the probate court of Buchanan county, charging plaintiff with being a person of unsound mind. Upon a trial thereon he was discharged.
The petition alleges a conspiracy in the following language:
"That on the said first day of April, 1926, the said defendants, M.S. Gray, F.G. Weary, C.L. Rice, Clyde Paxton, and Anna Rice cooperated and conspired together for the purpose of confining the said plaintiff in the said State Hospital Number Two, located in Buchanan County, Mo."
The petition contains a specific allegation relating to the certificate executed by Doctors Gray and Weary, as follows:
"The plaintiff further states that the certificate sworn to by the said M.S. Gray and F.G. Weary, defendants, was false and untrue in this, (and) that the said M.S. Gray and F.G. Weary had not seen this plaintiff on said date sworn to in said certificate, nor had they examined him on said date as sworn to in said certificate, and that the said certificate executed by the said defendants M.S. Gray and F.G. Weary was wholly false and untrue."
The prayer is for actual damages in the sum of $25,000 and punitive damages in the same amount.
Defendant Gray interposed a demurrer to the petition which was overruled, whereupon he filed an answer consisting of a general denial. Defendants Anna Rice, C.L. Rice and Clyde Paxton filed a general denial and after their motion to strike out certain allegations of the petition was sustained, they filed an amended answer admitting Anna Rice to be the wife of plaintiff, C.L. Rice, his son and Clyde Paxton, his son-in-law; and that defendant Anna Rice, on April 1, 1926, signed the application for admission of plaintiff to the state hospital No. 2, for treatment, but denying each and every other allegation of the petition. For further answer and affirmative defense, it is alleged plaintiff was insane on April 1, 1926; that he was in a highly nervous and violent state, incapable of taking care of himself, and in such a nervous, irresponsible and violent state of mind that he endangered the safety of defendant Anna Rice and the public; that on March 31, 1926, plaintiff became violent and irresponsible and threatened the life of members of his family; threatened to get a gun and take the life of C.L. Rice; that following such outburst and threat plaintiff did on said 31st day of March, 1926, depart from the home for the avowed purpose of obtaining a gun, and returned to the neighborhood a short time thereafter and loitered and concealed himself about the garage,...
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