Opinion ID: 883122
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did the District Court properly instruct the jury regarding negligence per se ?

Text: Jury Instructions 26 through 32, as given, related to Buhr's claims of negligence per se against Mental Health and Flathead County for their involvement in Joshua's evaluation, detention, and restraint. This series of instructions began with a broad definition of negligence per se. The next instruction quoted the statutorily-stated purpose of the Montana Mental Health Act; it was followed by two instructions setting out statutory definitions of various terms as contained in § 53-21-102, MCA. The statutory duties of Mental Health and Flathead County were set forth in Instructions 30 and 31. Instruction 30, quoting § 53-21-129(1) and (2), MCA, read as follows: INSTRUCTION NO. 30 The Montana Mental Health Act provides: (1) When an emergency situation exists, a peace officer may take any person who appears to be seriously mentally ill and as a result of serious mental illness to be a danger to others or to himself into custody only for sufficient time to contact a professional person for emergency evaluation. If possible, a professional person should be called prior to taking the person into custody. (2) If the professional person agrees that the person detained appears to be seriously mentally ill and that an emergency situation exists, then the person may be detained and treated until the next regular business day. At that time, the professional person shall release the detained person or file his findings with the county attorney who, if he determines probable cause to exist, shall file the petition provided for under the Act in the county of the respondent's residence. In either case, the professional person shall file a report with the court explaining his actions. Instruction 31, quoting from § 53-21-120, MCA, read as follows: INSTRUCTION NO. 31 The Montana Mental Health Act provides: 1. A person detained shall be detained in the least restrictive environment required to protect the life and physical safety of the person detained or members of the public; in this respect, prevention of significant injury to property may be considered; 2. Whenever possible, a person detained shall be detained in a mental health facility and in the county of residence. 3. A person may be detained in a jail or other correctional facility only if no mental health facility is available or if the available mental health facilities are inadequate to protect the person detained and the public. As soon as a mental health facility becomes available or the situation has changed sufficiently that an available mental health facility is adequate for the protection of the person detained and the public, then the detained person shall be transferred from the jail or correctional facility to the mental health facility. Finally, Instruction 32 set out the privileges of full mental health certification, including the ability to concur in the emergency detention of a person believed to be seriously mentally ill and to authorize restraint and isolation. The instruction was derived from the language of §§ 20.14.509(b-e) and 20.14.511(c), ARM. a. Did the District Court err in instructing the jury on the statutory duties of Flathead County and Mental Health by quoting statutory language? Relying on this Court's decision in Azure v. City of Billings (1979), 182 Mont. 234, 596 P.2d 460, Buhr contends that these instructions were erroneous because they contained irrelevant language and forced the jury to interpret the statutes and determine the appropriate standard of care contained therein. His reliance on Azure is misplaced. The jury instruction at issue in Azure quoted a statute in its entirety, informed the jury that the court had determined that defendant was negligent as a matter of law, and directed the jury to determine whether defendant's negligence was the proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries. Appellant argued that the jury should not have been instructed via the verbatim statutory language because doing so allowed the jury to consider again the issue already determined by the district court; namely, whether defendant was negligent. Azure, 596 P.2d at 472-73. We clarified in Azure that where statutes may require an interpretation, the interpretation must be supplied by the court, not the jury; we also clarified counsel's obligation to frame appropriate instructions containing both the substance and the meaning of the statute. Azure, 596 P.2d at 473. While we did note that, in the ordinary case, the jury should not be instructed in the precise words of the statute, we saw no reversible error. Azure, 596 P.2d at 473. Here, several of the court's negligence per se instructions quoted statutes verbatim. While we agree that instructing the jury on negligence per se via verbatim statutory quotes may not have been the preferable method, our review of the record reveals that the instructions proposed by Buhr as alternatives to those given also were direct statutory quotes from the Mental Health Act. As we noted in Azure, counsel for the parties are responsible for assisting the court to frame instructions which set forth the substance and meaning of the statutes. Given that Buhr's proposed instructions also quoted statutory material, we refuse to put the District Court in error for giving instructions framed in this manner. On the basis of the record before us, we conclude that the District Court did not err in instructing on statutory duties by quoting statutory language.