Source: http://openjurist.org/513/f2d/725/wojcik-v-levitt
Timestamp: 2014-09-02 01:51:06
Document Index: 162172235

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2281', '§ 12', '§ 12', '§ 12', '§ 2281', '§ 2281']

513 F2d 725 Wojcik v. Levitt | OpenJurist
513 F. 2d 725 - Wojcik v. Levitt	Home513 f2d 725 wojcik v. levitt
513 F2d 725 Wojcik v. Levitt 513 F.2d 725
Adam WOJCIK, individually and on behalf of all otherssimilarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.Leroy LEVITT, Director of the Illinois Department of MentalHealth, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 74-1661.
Argued Feb. 3, 1975.Decided April 9, 1975.
Thomas P. Grippando, Chester A. Lizak, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.
William J. Scott, Atty. Gen., Paul J. Bargiel and Robert G. Epsteen, Asst. Attys. Gen., Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellee.
Before PELL, STEVENS and DOYLE,* Circuit Judges.
In this case we must decide whether the district court properly dismissed plaintiff's cause of action, which sought an injunction against the enforcement by defendant, Director of the Illinois Department of Mental Health, of a portion of the Illinois Mental Health Code, without convening a three-judge court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2281.1
Plaintiff's indigent father has, since 1959, been involuntarily hospitalized in a facility of the Illinois Department of Mental Health. In May, 1972, the Department notified plaintiff that, pursuant to § 12-12 of the Illinois Mental Health Code,2 he owed the Department $50 per month, effective November, 1971, for treatment afforded his father.
After receiving an administrative hearing, after which the imposition of the $50 charge was reaffirmed, plaintiff commenced this suit as a class action,3 alleging that § 12-12 was unconstitutional4 and seeking to enjoin the defendant from bringing suit against plaintiff and other members of the class to collect such charges.5 Plaintiff noted in his complaint that the case appeared to be an appropriate one for the convening of a three-judge court, and subsequently so moved. Defendant moved to dismiss for, inter alia, failure to state a cause of action.
On June 5, 1974, in an unreported Memorandum Opinion and Order, District Judge McGarr denied plaintiff's motion to convene a three-judge court and granted defendant's motion to dismiss. In so ruling, the district judge concluded that plaintiff's attacks on the constitutionality of § 12-12 were "obviously without merit."6 Because we determine that at least one of plaintiff's constitutional arguments has sufficient substance to meet the standards set forth in Goosby v. Osser, 409 U.S. 512, 93 S.Ct. 854, 35 L.Ed.2d 36, we conclude that the district court erred in denying plaintiff's motion to convene a three-judge court.7
In Goosby, the Supreme Court repeated the tests to be applied by a single district judge in deciding whether the convening of a three-judge district court is necessary.Title 28 U.S.C. § 2281 does not require the convening of a three-judge court when the constitutional attack upon the state statutes is insubstantial. "Constitutional insubstantiality" for this purpose has been equated with such concepts as "essentially fictitious," Bailey v. Patterson, 369 U.S. (31), at 33, 82 S.Ct. 549 (7 L.Ed.2d 512); "wholly insubstantial," ibid.; "obviously frivolous," Hannis Distilling Co. v. Baltimore, 216 U.S. 285, 288, 30 S.Ct. 326, 327, 54 L.Ed. 482 (1910); and "obviously without merit," Ex parte Poresky, 290 U.S. 30, 32, 54 S.Ct. 3, 4-5, 78 L.Ed. 152 (1933). The limiting words "wholly" and "obviously" have cogent legal significance. In the context of the effect of prior decisions upon the substantiality of constitutional claims, those words import that claims are constitutionally insubstantial only if the prior decisions inescapably render the claims frivolous; previous decisions that merely render claims of doubtful or questionable merit do not render them insubstantial for the purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2281. A claim is insubstantial only if " 'its unsoundness so clearly results from the previous decisions of this court as to foreclose the subject and leave no room for the inference that the questions sought to be raised can be the subject of controversy.' " Ex parte Poresky, supra, at 32, 54 S.Ct. 3, quoting from Hannis Distilling Co. v. Baltimore, supra, 216 U.S. at 288, 30 S.Ct. 326; see also Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, 289 U.S. 103, 105-106, 53 S.Ct. 549, 77 L.Ed. 1062 (1933); McGilvra v. Ross, 215 U.S. 70, 80, 30 S.Ct. 27, 31, 54 L.Ed. 95 (1909).
Goosby v. Osser, 409 U.S. 512, 518, 93 S.Ct. 854, 858, 35 L.Ed.2d 36. If a plaintiff raises at least one constitutional issue that is not "essentially fictitious," "wholly insubstantial," "obviously frivolous," or "obviously without merit," a single district judge does not possess the jurisdiction to rule on the merits of any of the plaintiff's constitutional clai