Rodriguez v. City of New York
| Decision Date | 19 December 1995 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 140,140 |
| Citation | 72 F.3d 1051 |
| Parties | Florangel RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The CITY OF NEW YORK, The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Eileen Sweeney, M.D., personally, and Douglas Lee, M.D., personally, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 95-7009. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
William M. Brooks, Huntington, New York (Michael Bergman and John Hui, law student interns, Mental Disability Law Clinic, Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, Huntington, New York, on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Mordecai Newman, New York City (Paul A. Crotty, Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, Larry A. Sonnenshein, New York City, on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: FEINBERG, KEARSE, and LEVAL, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff Florangel Rodriguez appeals from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b), Kimba Wood, Judge, (1) dismissing her claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1988) against defendants Eileen Sweeney, M.D., Douglas Lee, M.D., New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation ("HHC"), and the City of New York ("City") for, inter alia, causing Rodriguez's involuntary commitment to Bellevue Hospital Center ("Bellevue" or the "Hospital") in violation of her rights under the Due Process Clause of the Constitution and New York Mental Hygiene Law ("MHL") Sec. 9.39 (McKinney 1988 & Supp.1994), and (2) dismissing her claim for a declaratory judgment that she is not liable for charges assessed against her by HHC for care and treatment during her involuntary confinement. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on the ground that the acts of Drs. Sweeney and Lee in committing Rodriguez satisfied the requirements of MHL Sec. 9.39 and due process as a matter of law. The court further ruled that since the commitment did not violate Rodriguez's rights, she is liable to HHC for the cost of her care and treatment during that commitment. On appeal, Rodriguez contends principally that summary judgment was improper because there were genuine issues to be tried as to the generally accepted standards in the medical community with respect to circumstances permitting involuntary emergency commitment, and as to the reasonableness of defendants' decision to commit her. For the reasons that follow, we agree, and we vacate the judgment and remand for trial.
Some of the facts are not in dispute, though there are disputes as to the significance
of those facts, whether viewed in isolation or viewed in the context of other facts that are disputed.
On May 25, 1991, Rodriguez went to Bellevue, a City hospital operated by HHC, seeking to obtain free sleeping pills. Informed that she could not obtain such medication without speaking to a physician, Rodriguez was then examined by Dr. Sweeney, a second-year resident in the Bellevue psychiatric emergency room with the responsibilities of a physician. Rodriguez cried during the interview and informed Sweeney that she had recently had trouble sleeping and eating at home; that she was sad because she was in a difficult period; that the past year, during which her marriage had been annulled, had not been a happy time for her; that she was experiencing a stressful relationship with her roommate; that her family in Venezuela was not as supportive as she would have liked; that her job performance had declined; and that a brother and a sister had previously taken overdoses of sleeping pills.
Dr. Sweeney concluded that Rodriguez should be committed to the Hospital on an emergency basis pursuant to MHL Sec. 9.39. That section provides in essence, to the extent pertinent here, that an individual "alleged to have a mental illness for which immediate observation, care, and treatment in a hospital is appropriate," may be admitted to a hospital involuntarily on an emergency basis if a hospital staff physician, upon examination of the individual, finds that the mental illness "is likely to result in serious harm" to the individual or others. MHL Sec. 9.39(a). "Likelihood to result in serious harm" is defined to include a
substantial risk of physical harm to himself as manifested by threats of or attempts at suicide or serious bodily harm or other conduct demonstrating that he is dangerous to himself.
Id. Rodriguez was held at the Hospital despite her protests.
On May 26, Rodriguez was examined by Dr. Lee, a psychiatrist on duty in the Bellevue psychiatric emergency room. Dr. Lee had read Dr. Sweeney's notes and concurred with her conclusion. Rodriguez remained confined involuntarily and was treated at the Hospital until May 28, when she was examined by another doctor and released. Following her release, HHC sent her a bill for services rendered during her confinement.
Rodriguez commenced the present action in 1993, principally alleging that her involuntary commitment at Bellevue violated her rights to substantive and procedural due process (first, second, and fifth causes of action) and requesting compensatory and punitive damages, as well as an order directing the expungement of her hospital record. She also sought a declaratory judgment that she is not liable for the charges billed to her by HHC (seventh cause of action).
Following a period of discovery, defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing, inter alia, Rodriguez's first, second, and fifth causes of action, contending that the undisputed facts established as a matter of law that defendants had complied with the requirements of MHL Sec. 9.39 and thereby satisfied the demands of substantive and procedural due process. In support of their motion, defendants proffered their version of the information given to Drs. Sweeney and Lee, citing the defendant doctors' deposition testimony and the hospital record containing the notes they made of their interviews of Rodriguez.
Dr. Sweeney stated that she examined Rodriguez on May 25 for about an hour and twenty minutes. The hospital record of her notes on the interview attribute various statements to Rodriguez, including that Rodriguez had been feeling depressed since August 1990 when her marriage was annulled; that Rodriguez's job performance was poor because of her impaired concentration, and her coworkers had noticed this; that she had not been able to eat or sleep for the past two weeks; that Rodriguez said " 'nothing makes me happy' "; that Rodriguez "admit[ted] to + [i.e., positive] suicidal ideation" and said she would not care if a car hit her while she The notes also indicated that Dr. Sweeney had received input by telephone from Rodriguez's roommate, Rosario Medina. According to the notes, Medina told Dr. Sweeney that since Rodriguez moved in with her some five weeks earlier, Rodriguez had not slept at all during the night, had spent a lot of time in the bathroom at night, had had daily crying episodes, did not do any household chores, and never wanted to go out. Medina also stated that Rodriguez had told Medina she thought God had sent her to Medina because He thought Medina could help her.
was crossing the street; and that Rodriguez said she wished she would die. According to the notes, Rodriguez also said she had seen a psychiatrist several times in Venezuela approximately a decade earlier because she was depressed, and that her brother and two sisters had "made suicide attempts/gestures by OD'ing [i.e., overdosing] on pills." Dr. Sweeney's notes described Rodriguez's mood as depressed and anxious, and they stated that Rodriguez was very tearful and sobbed loudly throughout most of the interview
The hospital record indicates that Dr. Sweeney concluded that Rodriguez had "[n]o clear suicidal plan at present," but that
Dr. Lee too, having reviewed Dr. Sweeney's notes, concluded that Rodriguez had suicidal ideation. His notes indicated that Rodriguez confirmed to him that on the previous day she had told Dr. Sweeney she "did not care whether a car hit her while crossing the street" and that on that day she wanted to be hit by a car.
The accuracy of the contents of the notes taken by Drs. Sweeney and Lee was sharply disputed by Rodriguez. In opposition to defendants' summary judgment motion, Rodriguez submitted an affidavit conceding that though the defendant doctors had made the notes found in the hospital record, those notes in many respects inaccurately or incompletely depicted the statements made by Rodriguez. She also submitted the affidavit of psychiatrist Peter Stastny, M.D., who concluded that the performance of Drs. Sweeney and Lee failed to meet the generally accepted standards of the medical community. Rodriguez cross-moved for summary judgment in her favor on certain claims.
According to her own affidavit, Rodriguez had gone to the Hospital on May 25 not because she was depressed but because she had had trouble sleeping and Medina had told her that at the Hospital she could obtain sleeping pills free of charge. Rodriguez stated that in the interview, though she informed Dr. Sweeney that she had been "sad" because of a difficult period that included a marriage annulment, she had never thought of herself as depressed. Rodriguez stated that she never told Dr. Sweeney that she was depressed, never told Sweeney that nothing made her happy, never said she would not care if a car hit her, and never said she wished she would die.
Nor did Rodriguez tell Dr. Sweeney that she had consulted a psychiatrist a decade earlier because of depression; rather, she...
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