Title: In Interest of Tj
Citation: 482 N.W.2d 850
Docket Number: 920010
State: north-dakota
Issuer: north-dakota Supreme Court
Date: March 19, 1992

482 N.W.2d 850 (1992) In the Interest of T.J., Respondent and Appellant. Civ. No. 920010. Supreme Court of North Dakota. March 19, 1992. Edwin W.F. Dyer, III (argued), of Dyer &amp; Summers, Bismarck, for respondent and appellant. Bruce B. Haskell (argued), Asst. State's Atty., Bismarck, for appellee. MESCHKE, Justice. T.J. appeals from denial of his motion to dismiss an order for continuing mental-health treatment, other than hospitalization, for lack of statutory authorization. We affirm. After earlier commitment proceedings, T.J. waived a hearing on April 10, 1991, and the Burleigh County court ordered his indefinite mental-health treatment as an outpatient through West Central Human Service Center in Bismarck. See NDCC 25-03.1-22(2). Before six months expired, the director of the Center filed a periodic review with the court under NDCC 25-03.1-31, reporting that T.J. continued to be mentally ill and that outpatient treatment should continue. The report said: The report summarized the treatment to continue: Notice of the review results was given to T.J. and to his appointed attorney. The procedure for periodic review of continuing treatment is prescribed by statute: NDCC 25-03.1-31 (1991). T.J.'s attorney did not seek an independent expert examination, but moved to dismiss the continuing treatment because, as he saw it, "the statute requires that a continuing treatment order be dismissed at the time of periodic review if a need for hospitalization is not found." The trial court denied T.J.'s motion, ruling that the statute "does contemplate periodic reviews be done on [involuntary patients] under continuing treatment programs even if they are not hospitalized." Based on the unchallenged report that T.J. continued to be mentally ill and in need of outpatient treatment, the court continued the order for outpatient treatment. After the trial court refused to reconsider, T.J. appealed, arguing that NDCC 25-03.1-31 requires a need for hospitalization to continue an indefinite order for treatment after periodic review. T.J. does not object to the conclusions of the periodic report, nor does he seek an independent expert evaluation. Thus, T.J. does not claim that he is not mentally ill or that he does not need outpatient treatment. Instead, T.J. seeks to invalidate the continuing treatment order by a judicial declaration that the court has no statutory power to continue an indefinite order for outpatient treatment after periodic review. Strangely, stressing that the statute "is replete with references to hospitalization," the State sides with T.J. that the statute does not permit periodic review of an order for continuing outpatient treatment. Yet the State urges affirmance, not reversal, of the continuation. The State posits that a continuing order for less restrictive treatment than hospitalization simply continues in effect without any review at all until the involuntary patient no longer needs any treatment. According to the State, the facility effecting outpatient treatment will then discharge the involuntary patient on its own initiative, or the patient can initiate legal proceedings to lift the continuing order. This puzzling position strikes us as an effort to "return to the old days," inconsistent with the current legislative intent, expressed in NDCC 25-03.1-01(2), to "[s]afeguard individual rights." *852 These different positions between the State and T.J. about the application of NDCC 25-03.1-31 suggest that it is "susceptible to differing but rational meanings", and that it is, therefore, ambiguous. Souris River Tel. v. Workers Compensation Bureau, 471 N.W.2d 465, 468 (N.D. 1991). The interpretation of a statute is a question of law that is fully reviewable by this court. Ladish Malting Co. v. Stutsman County, 351 N.W.2d 712 (N.D.1984). The purpose of statutory construction is to determine the intent of the Legislature. County of Stutsman v. State Historical Society, 371 N.W.2d 321 (N.D.1985). "[C]onsideration should be given to the ordinary sense of the statutory words, the context in which they are used, and the purpose which prompted their enactment". Id. at 327. When a statute is ambiguous, the canons of construction permit the use of other aids to interpretation, including the object sought to be attained by the statute, the legislative history, and the consequences of a particular construction. NDCC 1-02-39. It is basic, as NDCC 1-02-38 tells us, that the entire statute is intended to be effective, and that a just and reasonable result is intended by the Legislature. A broad reform of the mental-health commitment laws was enacted in 1977 as a result of a study by the North Dakota Legislative Council's Committee on State and Federal Government during the 1975-1977 interim. That Committee summarized the major reforms that it recommended in Senate Bill 2164: (Emphasis supplied). Report of the North Dakota Legislative Council (Forty Fifth Legislative Assembly, 1977), p. 197. Senate Bill 2164, after some amendments, became Ch. 239 of the 1977 N.D. Laws and was codified as NDCC Ch. 25-03.1. The Legislature declared that it intended to "[e]ncourage, whenever appropriate, that services be provided within the community." NDCC 25-03.1-01(5). Thus, one basic objective was "treatment other than hospitalization" through community resources. Application of periodic review to continuing outpatient treatment fulfills important objectives of the reform, to encourage local treatment less restrictive than hospitalization while safeguarding individual rights. As originally enacted in 1977, the periodic review procedure was separately, though awkwardly, stated in NDCC 25-03.1-31 and 25-03.1-32. 1977 N.D. Laws, Ch. 239, §§ 31 and 32. In 1979, however, these two sections were amended and combined into a single section: 1979 N.D. Laws, Ch. 334, § 29. The concluding five sentences (underlined material) of this amended and combined section were takenwith only slight changes of phrasingfrom NDCC 25-03.1-32 (1977), which was then repealed. 1979 N.D. Laws, Ch. 334, § 33. Substitution of the word "treatment" for "hospitalization" in the first paragraph of that revised section evinces his attorney an intention to apply periodic review to an order for continuing outpatient treatment, as well as one for hospitalization. Moreover, as enacted and as amended, NDCC 25-03.1-31 directs that an involuntary patient's petition for discharge from a continuing treatment order "may be presented to the court or a representative of the hospital or facility." (Our emphasis). As enacted in 1977, the definition of "facility" included any "evaluation and treatment facility which can provide directly, or by direct arrangement with other public or private agencies ... outpatient care ...." 1977 N.D. Laws, Ch. 239, § 1, subsection 17. This same definition was reenacted in 1979. 1979 N.D. Laws, Ch. 334, § 4, subsection 16. This part of the definition of a "facility" is the same today. NDCC 25-03.1-02(17) (1991). The intention to make continuation of an alternative treatment order for outpatient care subject to periodic review is unmistakable. This conclusion is reinforced by an amendment a decade later. In 1989, the definition of a "person requiring treatment" was modified to describe one who needs to be "treated" rather than "hospitalized": Minutes of House Judiciary Committee, March 8, 1989, page 3. There may remain other misplaced "hospitalizations" in NDCC Ch. 25-03.1, even in NDCC 25-03.1-31. Nevertheless, this refined definition of a "person requiring treatment" effectively applies all relevant procedures, including a periodic review, to any involuntary treatment, not just hospitalization, unless the context otherwise dictates. We agree with the trial court that NDCC 25-03.1-31 contemplates periodic review for a continuing order of outpatient treatment, as well as for a continuing order of hospitalization. We conclude that the trial court properly denied T.J.'s motion to dismiss and properly continued the order for outpatient treatment. Therefore, we affirm. ERICKSTAD, C.J., VANDE WALLE and LEVINE, JJ., concur. VERNON R. PEDERSON, Surrogate Justice, sitting as a member of the Court to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of GIERKE, J. JOHNSON, J., not being a member of this Court at the time this case was heard did not participate in this decision.