Opinion ID: 1541042
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Background of Each Case

Text: Elizabeth Kossow filed a petition for the involuntary hospitalization of her son, appellant Gerald G. Kossow, on November 15, 1976, D.C.Code 1973, § 21-541. Mrs. Kossow averred, in the words of the statute, that Mr. Kossow was mentally ill and likely to injure himself or others because of his tendency to address her in an obscene and abusive manner, as well as to assault her. She pointed out, further, that appellant had a history of mental illness and hospitalization. The requisite hearing before the District of Columbia Commission on Mental Health (the Commission) on January 25, 1977, resulted in a recommendation of commitment to St. Elizabeths Hospital with outpatient release as long as appellant continued to report for treatment. Appellant thereupon demanded his statutory right to jury trial. D.C.Code 1973, § 21-544. The Corporation Council declined to pursue the case, but Mrs. Kossow decided to do so herself, represented by retained counsel. Her son, represented by attorneys from the Public Defender Service, filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that a private party lacks legal capacity to prosecute civil commitment proceedings. The trial court denied appellant's motion and the hearing went forward on February 7 and 11, 1977, although appellant voluntarily absented himself from a substantial portion of the proceedings. Dr. Murphy of the Commission staff testified that appellant was schizophrenic and potentially dangerous. The jury found that appellant was mentally ill and likely to injury himself or others. The trial court denied appellant's post-trial motion for judgment n. o. v. based on the same ground as the motion to dismiss. On February 24, 1977, the trial court held a dispositional hearing, then committed Gerald Kossow to St. Elizabeths for an indefinite period. Mabel F. Rubain similarly petitioned for judicial hospitalization of her 30-year-old son, appellant Reginald Rubain, on March 8, 1976. Her supporting affidavit stated that appellant had a history of mental instability (schizophrenia) and related hospitalization, and thatamong other behaviorshe had set fires in trash cans in the house, broken plaster off the walls looking for money, talked of getting guns, dressed in sheets and towels, and watched television without the sound. After a hearing on March 18, 1976, the Commission recommended that the court dismiss the petition because all parties had agreed to dismissal based on Reginald Rubain's willingness to undergo voluntary treatment. Apparently, however, he failed to appear for a scheduled hearing shortly thereafter. A new report by the Commission on April 15, 1976, found Mr. Rubain to be suffering from schizophrenia, Chronic Undifferentiated Type, and stated that he was likely to injure himself and others if allowed to remain at liberty. The Commission accordingly recommended indefinite commitment to St. Elizabeths and set the matter for hearing in Superior Court on April 23. The trial court appointed the Corporation Counsel to represent the petitioner, Mrs. Rubain, but on April 26, 1976, the Corporation Counsel appealed to this court challenging the validity of that appointment. The commitment hearing was accordingly delayed pending resolution of the appeal, which itself was held in abeyance pending decision of the same issue in another case. District of Columbia v. Pryor, D.C.App., 366 A.2d 141 (1976). Once Pryor had been decided in the Corporation Counsel's favor, we dismissed the appeal in this case on December 13, 1976. As a result, the Corporation Counsel was no longer in the case. The Commission then held another hearing on December 21, when it reconfirmed its findings of April 15, as well as its recommendation of indefinite hospitalization. Appellant then requested a jury trial. On January 14, 1977, the trial court appointed a private attorney to represent the petitioner, Mrs. Rubain. After an unsuccessful motion by appellant to vacate the appointment and dismiss the action, as well as a similarly fruitless motion to this court for a stay pending appeal of the denial, the court conducted a jury trial on February 14, 1977. Mrs. Rubain and her appointed counsel assumed responsibility for conducting the proceeding in support of her petition. Dr. Murphy of the Commission staff testified that Reginald Rubain was schizophrenic and potentially dangerous. The jury then found Mr. Rubain to be mentally ill and likely to injure himself or others if allowed to remain at liberty. On March 16, 1977, the judge committed appellant Rubain to St. Elizabeths for an indefinite period. Later he denied motions for judgment n. o. v. and for a new trial. Both denial orders have been appealed. We agreed to consolidate them with Mr. Kossow's appeal from his commitment order. Finally, in a petition filed October 19, 1977, Thurman F. Murphy, father of appellant Thurman Mathews Murphy, sought judicial hospitalization of his son. In the accompanying affidavit, the petitioner related that appellant sleeps during the day and stays up at night; that he messes up food to the extent that we have to shop daily; that he hooks up wires to electrical outlets; that his family has to lock up. . . all personal articles especially medicine because appellant takes it; that appellant threatens to tear up everything in the house and car; that he was apprehended at Fort Belvoir when found sleeping in an abandoned building, whereupon he asserted that he was there to plant land mines; that in 1974 he was involved in an automobile accident in which a young lady was killed, and that a month before the time of the petition, when he heard another woman on the street near the family home referred to by the same name as the decedent, he started chasing her, asking why she stayed away from him so long, and threatening to kill her; and, finally, that he had mentioned sex with our 16-year-old daughter. The Commission, after hearing particularized evidence of much bizarre behavior, concluded that appellant Murphy was suffering from Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type and [was] likely to injure himself and others if allowed to remain at liberty. The Commission, therefore, recommended indeterminate judicial hospitalization. Appellant requested a jury trial. On December 5, 1977, the court denied a motion to dismiss the case based on the same contentions now raised in these appeals. Thereafter, appellant apparently waived his jury right. After trial, on December 21, 1977, the court found appellant mentally ill and likely to injure himself or others. Pending a dispositional hearing set for January 13, 1978, appellant was committed to St. Elizabeths. Prior to that hearing, he brought this appeal. [2]