Williams v. Summit Psychiatric Centers P.C.

• Decision Date: 24 November 1987
• Docket Number: No. 75209,75209
• Citation: 363 S.E.2d 794,185 Ga.App. 264
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. SUMMIT PSYCHIATRIC CENTERS, P.C.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 794

363 S.E.2d 794

185 Ga.App. 264

WILLIAMS v. SUMMIT PSYCHIATRIC CENTERS, P.C.

No. 75209.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Nov. 24, 1987.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 11, 1987.

Certiorari Denied Feb. 5, 1988.

Adele P. Grubbs, Marietta, for appellant.

Terrance C. Sullivan, Atlanta, Timothy H. Bendin, for appellee.

BIRDSONG, Chief Judge.

Summary Judgment--False Imprisonment--Res Judicata. This is the second appearance of this case before this court. See Williams v. Smith, 179 Ga.App. 712, 348 S.E.2d 50. For a succinct statement of the facts, see that case. Mrs. Williams sued both Dr. Smith and Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. in this suit in three tort counts but sought recovery from Summit only in the first count alleging false imprisonment. Also it is quite clear that Mrs. Williams seeks a recovery from Summit as the employer of Smith on the theory of respondeat superior. After the case was remanded back to the trial court for further consideration of the allegations against Summit following the discharge of the employee Smith on grant of summary judgment, Summit moved for summary judgment on several grounds, one being res judicata. Mrs. Williams sought to avoid the grant of summary judgment on that ground by submitting a second affidavit in which she sought to show that persons and employees of Summit other than Smith were involved in the imprisonment and thus the doctrine of res judicata would not apply. The trial court rejected this reasoning and granted summary judgment to Summit. It is this grant that forms the basis of Mrs. Williams' second appeal. Held:

1. In her affidavit in contravention of Smith's motion for summary judgment, Mrs. Williams had submitted the following: "On 20 March, 1984 I went to the offices of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. for counseling because of marital problems. The lady psychologist suggested that I needed medication to sleep at night and that she would have a doctor write a prescription for me. I told her ... I did not want to take any medication. Dr. Randy Smith, an employee of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. then entered the room and told me he was going to commit me and that I could not leave. I asked him not to do so. I pointed out that I was in the middle of a divorce and that the custody of my child would be in jeopardy if he committed me, that I was not suicidal and just wanted to return to my job. Dr. Smith said I was not free to return to my job and that, on him executing the appropriate paperwork, I would be committed. After some time I was able to call my attorney. The I picked up my things, left the office and returned to my employment at Cobb General Hospital."

On remand to consider further the complaint against Summit, and to supplement her affidavit in those proceedings against Summit, Mrs. Williams filed an additional affidavit in which she stated: "On 20th March, 1984 I went to the offices of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. for counseling because of marital problems. The lady psychologist suggested that I needed medication to sleep at night and that she would have a doctor write a prescription for me. I told her that I did not want to take any medication. Dr. Randy Smith, an employee of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. then entered the room and told me he was going to commit me and that I could not leave. He told me that if I were to leave I would be arrested and physically taken to a mental hospital and that therefore the employees of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. would prevent me from leaving the premises. I was left in a room by myself and when I opened the door I saw that I was being watched by several employees of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. with great attention. I feared that if I tried to leave, I would be physically and forcefully restrained and that force would be used to stop me leaving. I was again told I could not leave by employees of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. that I was being committed and would be physically restrained from leaving the premises, to the extent that force would be used. During this time Dr. Smith and other employees of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C. came in and out of the room where I was held, each telling me not to leave. I was thus restrained of my liberty for a considerable period of time. Only after the reassurance of my attorney, through her secretary, that I could not be legally held, did I attempt to leave."

2. In the first decision of this case involving the employee of Summit Psychiatric Centers, P.C., Dr. Smith, this court held: " 'False imprisonment is the unlawful detention of the person of another, for any length of time, whereby such person is deprived of his personal liberty.' OCGA § 51-7-20. 'The restraint constituting a false imprisonment may arise out of words, acts, gestures, or the like, which induce a reasonable apprehension that force will be used if plaintiff does not submit, and it is sufficient if they operate upon the will of the person threatened and result in a reasonable fear of personal difficulty or personal injuries....' However, 'the evidence in this case demands a finding that [appellee] did nothing to induce a reasonable fear in [appellant] that there would be a personal difficulty or personal injury if [she] had refused the command or request made....' The evidence is undisputed that, notwithstanding anything that appellee may have said to her, appellant was at all times allowed to move freely about the Summit premises and that, when she left, she did so without incident. It thus appears that appellant was at no time physically restrained by virtue of any 'threat' of immediate detention at the hands of appellee. 'Threats to imprison are not imprisonments. To constitute false imprisonment, there must be actual physical restraint ... by force or fear....' The trial court did not err in granting appellee summary judgment as to Count One [false imprisonment]." Williams v. Smith, supra at p. 713(1), 348 S.E.2d 50. (Emphasis deleted.)

3. Mrs. Williams contends that the findings of fact and law in Smith, supra, should not be dispositive as to her complaint against Summit for she has submitted a much fuller factual statement in this second consideration of the restraint at the Summit psychiatric facility. We are not persuaded by this contention. In the affidavit in Smith, Mrs. Williams presented her feelings that Dr. Smith told her he was going to commit her and that she was not free to leave. She contended Smith emphasized to her that she could not return to work at her job and that she would be committed as soon as he prepared the necessary paper work. This court concluded that this constituted nothing more than a verbal threat of imprisonment and that Mrs. Williams was free to move about, use the telephone and to leave when she desired, all of which she did. While in the second affidavit, Mrs. Williams set forth more facts showing the basis of her fear of trying to leave, in substance she presented no further evidence that she was physically restrained or was not actually free to use the phone and to leave when she wanted to go without any effort to restrain her. Simply fleshing out with additional detail the threats of restraint did not convert the threat of imprisonment into actual imprisonment. Thus we find the consideration of the false imprisonment issue and the holding thereto as issued in Smith, supra, to be dispositive of the false imprisonment Count I as to Summit. Moreover, the liability of Summit being purely derivative (as discussed in the next division) and dependent on the doctrine of respondeat superior, a judgment in favor of the servant and against Williams is res judicata in favor of the master, Summit, in the continuation of the suit by Williams. Gilmer v. Porterfield, 233 Ga. 671, 673(1), 212 S.E.2d 842. This application of the doctrine of res judicata renders Mrs. Williams' additional facts relating to her subjective fears and imprisonment nugatory, for the issues settled in Smith, supra, are conclusive between Mrs. Williams, Smith and Smith's privies not only as to all matters put in issue in the Smith case but those facts that could have been put in support of those issues. See Delta Air Lines v. Woods, 137 Ga.App. 693, 695, 224 S.E.2d 763.

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