Case Name: In re Mabel JONES
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1976-11-24
Citations: 339 So. 2d 1117
Docket Number: No. 48541
Parties: In re Mabel JONES.
Judges: OVERTON, C. J., and ROBERTS, ENGLAND, SUNDBERG and HATCHETT, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 339
Pages: 1117–1119

Head Matter:
In re Mabel JONES.
No. 48541.
Supreme Court of Florida.
Nov. 24, 1976.
Louis G. Carres and Edward L. Harvey, Asst. Public Defenders, for Mabel Jones, appellant.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., and Mary Jo Carpenter, Asst. Atty. Gen., for State of Florida, appellee.

Opinion:
ADKINS, Justice.
This is a direct appeal from the Circuit Court of Leon County which held that Section 394.467, Florida Statutes (1973), was constitutional. We have jurisdiction. Article V, Section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution.
A petition was filed seeking involuntary hospitalization of appellant and a request was made on behalf of appellant for a jury determination of the factual issues involved in the proceeding. Appellant contends that Section 394.467, Florida Statutes (1975), is unconstitutional because of its failure to provide for a jury determination of the factual criteria involved in such proceedings.
Testimony was taken before the court and an order of commitment for involuntary hospitalization was entered. An appeal was then taken to this Court.
In Ex parte Scudamore, 55 Fla. 211, 46 So. 279 (1908), it was contended that legislation providing the procedure for involuntary hospitalization was invalid because of its failure to provide a jury trial of the question of the subject's insanity. The Court explained that the provision of our constitution that "the right of trial by jury shall be secured to all" merely secured it in those cases in which it was a matter of right before the adoption of the constitution. The Court said:
"At the time, in 1885, when this provision was reinserted as part of our Constitution, for a period of more than half a century, and long prior to the adoption of our first state Constitution in 1845, containing the same provisions, the law in force here making provision for the ascertainment of the fact of insanity and for commitment of the unfortunate sufferer therefrom, made no provision for a jury trial of such question, and granted no such right to the subject involved in the inquiry. Consequently the questioned legislation, enacted since the adoption of our Constitution, in withholding a trial by jury in such cases, invades no right secured to the subject by such provision of the organic law." 46 So. 279 at 283-84.
The same provision is now included in the Florida Constitution of 1968, Article I, Section 22. We therefore hold that the Florida Constitution does not require a trial by jury in civil commitment proceeding.
In Humphrey v. Cady, 405 U.S. 504, 511, 92 S.Ct. 1048, 31 L.Ed.2d 394 (1972), the United States Supreme Court recognized that the right to a jury trial in involuntary hospitalization proceedings had not been passed upon by it. The court in Lynch v. Baxley, 386 F.Supp. 378 (M.D.Ala.1974), came to the same conclusion. The federal decisions create no impediment to our conclusion that the statute is valid.
Appellant also contends that the failure to provide a trial by jury deprives her of equal protection of the law. Appellant refers to Section 394.467(5)' Florida Statutes, which grants a right to trial by jury in proceedings where patients, committed due to a court finding in a criminal case of acquittal by reason of insanity, seek release from the hospital. This statute applies only to persons acquitted of a crime by reason of insanity, in accordance with the provisions of Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.460. The committing court retains jurisdiction and the procedure is part of a criminal proceeding. There is a valid distinction between a regular civil commitment proceeding and a hearing which is held in connection with a criminal case wherein a defendant was acquitted for cause of insanity.
There is no fundamental right to a jury trial in civil commitment proceedings, either under the State or Federal constitution. There is a valid distinction between general civil commitment proceeding and the limited circumstance in a criminal case of involuntary hospitalization of a defendant acquitted for cause of insanity. The failure of the state to grant a right to a jury trial in original civil commitment proceedings does not violate either the Florida or the United States constitution. Section 394.467, Florida Statutes, is constitutional.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
OVERTON, C. J., and ROBERTS, ENGLAND, SUNDBERG and HATCHETT, JJ., concur.
BOYD, J., dissents with an opinion.