Watkins v. Hall

• Decision Date: 11 January 1934
• Citation: 172 S.E. 445
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: WATKINS. v. HALL.

172 S.E. 445

WATKINS.

v.HALL.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Jan. 11, 1934.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Henrico County.

Habeas corpus proceeding by John T. Wat-kins against James K. Hall. From a judgment quashing the writ and remanding the petitioner to the care of defendant, petitioner appeals.

Reversed.

Argued before CAMPBELL, C. T., and HOLT, EPES, HUDGINS, GREGORY, BROWNING, and CHINN, JJ.

Charles Pickett, of Fairfax, and Eppa Hun-ton, IV, of Richmond, for plaintiff in error.

McGuire, Riely & Eggleston, of Richmond, for defendant in error.

HOLT, Justice.

This is a habeas corpus proceeding in which John T. Watkins, a citizen of California, seeks relief from detention, charged to be unlawful, in the Westbrook Sanatorium, a private institution devoted to the treatment of nervous and insane patients, conducted by Dr. James K. Hall.

Application was originally made to the circuit court of Henrico county which denied the relief prayed for. Mr. Watkins is a veteran of the Spanish-American War and of the World War, and has been retired from the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey with the rank of Commander. His retirement pay, pension, and disability payments approximate $100 a month. He has other property. The cost of his maintenance at Westbrook is $50 a week.

On December 12, 1931, in the corporation court of the city of Alexandria, on petition of his sisters, Elizabeth Rosson and Emma Watkins Evans, he was adjudged to be a drug addict and was committed to Westbrook Sanatorium. In accordance with that order he was taken there. His nephew, John W. Rosson, was appointed committee for his estate. On April 2, 1932, another inquisition was had at which he was adjudged insane by a commission composed of William Newsome, Jr., a justice of the peace for Henrico county, and Drs. Howard R. Masters and Beverley R. Tucker, and was committed to Westbrook Sanatorium, in which he already was. On, July 16, 1932, he was again adjudged insane by a commission composed of H. W. Bates, Jr., a justice of the peace for Henrico county, and Drs. R. K. Foxwell and Joseph R. Jordan, and was again committed to that sanatorium. On January 16, 1933, he was again adjudged insane by a commission composed of Hugh W. Davis, a justice of the peace for Henrico county, and Drs. Beverley R. Tucker and Howard R. Masters, and was again committed to that institution. In it he has been continuously confined since December, 1931.

The writ in this case issued on April 1, 1933, and on April 18, 1933, this order was entered by the circuit court of Henrico county:

"This 18th. day of April 1933, John T. Watkins was brought into Court by James K. Hall, of Westbrook Sanatorium in the County of Henrico, Va., in obedience to the writ of habeas corpus ab-subjiciendum awarded on the 1st. day of April, 1933, and directed to the said James K. Hall, and thereupon this cause came on to be heard on the petition of John T. Watkins and the answer thereto of James K. Hall, both being duly sworn to, and on the testimony of the petitioner, on his own behalf and Edmund P. Ellis, and R. D. Chase on behalf of the petitioner, and on the testimony of John W. Rosson, Jr., Dr. James K. Hall and Dr. Beverley R. Tucker, on behalf of the respondent, all taken orally in open Court, on exhibits Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 filed with the testimony of John W. Rosson, Jr., and the record of the proceedings of an inquisition conducted by Hugh W. Davis, Justice of the Peace of the County of Henrico, and Dr. Beverley R. Tucker and Dr. Howard R. Masters, on the 16th day of January 1933 in which the petitioner was adjudged insane, and on the order of commitment issued by Hugh W. Davis, Justice of the Peace, on the 16th day of January 1933, directed that the petitioner be committed to Dr. O. B. Darden or Dr. J. K. Hall, the Supt. of Westbrook Sanatorium at Brook Hill, Va.;

"And it was also shown to the Court that on the 2nd. day of December 1931 that the petitioner was adjudged a drug addict by Commission composed of George S. French, a Justice of the Peace of Alexandria, Va., and Dr. Hugh McGuire and Dr. Llewellyn Powell, and committed to Westbrook Sanatorium for treatment; that on April 2nd. 1932, he was adjudged insane by a Commission composed of William Newsome, Jr., Justice of the Peace of the County of Henrico, and Drs. Beverley R. Tucker and Howard R. Masters, and committed to Westbrook Sanatorium, and that July 16th, 1932, the petitioner was adjudged insane by a commission composed of H. W. Bates, Jr., Justice of the Peace of the County of Henrico, and Dr. D. K. Foxwell and Joseph R. Jordan, and committed to Westbrook Sanatorium; and that the petitioner in consequence of the aforesaid commitment has been kept at Westbrook Sanatorium continuously since December 2nd. 1931.

"Upon consideration whereof, and upon argument of counsel, the Court being of the opinion that the petitioner is a person of unsound mind, and that he is not illegally imprisoned, confined, detained, and restrained of his liberty without lawful authority, as in said writ recited. It is ordered that the writ of habeas corpus ab-subjiciendum, awarded as aforesaid, be quashed and that the petitioner be remanded to the care of James K. Hall, of Westbrook Sanatorium in the County of Henrico, Va., to which action of the Court the petitioner by counsel excepts."

Notwithstanding this order, the judge did think, as shown by bill of exception No. 2, that Code, § 1020, forbade the detention of an insane person in a private institution for more than four months. This is that bill duly signed:

"Be It remembered that at the conclusion of the evidence in this case, the court stated in the presence of counsel that in its opinion Section 1020 of the Code of Virginia prohibited the detention of an insane person in a private institution for a period of more than four months, but that from the evidence of the physicians it was of the opinion that the petitioner was insane and that therefore the petitioner should not be released but that the legality of his detention should be settled by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Va., and for this reason the petitioner should not be discharged from custody, to which action of the court counsel for the petitioner excepted, and tendered this his bill of exception No. 2, which he prays may be signed, sealed and made a part of the record in this case, and the same is accordingly done this 16th day of June, 1933."

So much of said Code, section 1020, as is pertinent, reads:

"If the justices find that the patient is an insane, epileptic or inebriate person and ought to be confined, they may, upon request of the patient's friends, commit said patient to a private sanitarium, there to be confined until removed by his or her friends or discharged by the physician in charge of such institution; but in no event shall such patient be kept in any such institution for a period exceeding four months." (Italics supplied.)

This statute first appears in the Acts of 1904, c. 240, p. 349, and is perfectly unambiguous on its face. So much is conceded. But it is said that from it these unreasonable results follow:

"If the construction of the statute here sought be sound, then it will result that an insane man, able to pay for private care under skillful physicians who thoroughly understand his case, but who require more than four months to effect a cure, may, on his own motion, be removed from a private sanatorium contrary to the best judgment of those most deeply interested in his welfare and committed to the custody of 'friends', or placed in a public institution where all beneficial results of the care theretofore given him may be lost. All this, no matter what his condition may be--whether his insanity be of a mild nature or such as to render him a dangerous maniac, " and...