Court Opinion

ID: 9442697
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:56:09.101462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:11.496769
License: Public Domain

WILBUR K. MILLER, Circuit Judge,
with whom Circuit Judges CLARK and PRETTYMAN join, dissenting: I cannot agree with the- conclusion reached by the court. This case is of such importance in this jurisdiction that I feel justified in stating somewhat at length the manner in which I think it should be decided.
*346On June 1, 1932, the appellant, Ray M. Stewart, was adjudged to be of unsound mind. Continuously since then he has been a patient in St. Elizabeths, a federal mental hospital in the District of Columbia. During his long confinement, Stewart has frequently applied to the United States District Court for a writ of habeas corpus. Some of his petitions, all of which are substantially of the same tenor, have been rejected as insufficient to justify either issuing the writ or ruling the respondent to show cause why it should not issue. On at least two occasions, however, a trial judge entertained the petition, ruled the superintendent of the hospital to show cause and, after hearing evidence, concluded Stewart was still insane and in need of further treatment.
The following petition, which initiated the case before us, was mailed to the District Court on August 12, 1948:
“I. Your petitioner Ray M. Stewart represents and states to this Honorable Court that he is restrained of his liberty and illegally confined at St Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, D. C., by the superintendent of said institution.
“II. To the best of the knowledge and belief of your petitioner the cause of said restraint is — Alleged Mental Incompetency —but the same is false and he should be released therefrom.
“III. Your petitioner avers that he is of sound mind as he knows right from wrong.
“IV. He further states that the name under which he was committed is not his.
“V. Your petitioner further states that he has never been properly adjudicated as one of those giving expert testimony was neither a doctor nor psychiatrist, to wit, one Earl Elliott Dudding.
“VI. As the impostor mentioned above signed the Lunacy Enquirento (sic), the same was invalid and the subsequent arrest null and void as well as fraudulent.
“VII. The object of said confinement was to mulch (sic) your petitioner of the money left him by his late mother Mrs. Marget P. Stewart, in the Anacostia Bank, 2010 Nichols Avenue S. E., and by his father illegally withdrawn therefrom.
“VIII. Your petitioner states that he was without benefit of counsel at said false adjudication.
“IX. He further avers that he was not allowed to speak in his own behalf at said hearing.
“X. Wherefore your petitioner prays this Honorable Court to grant this petition and issue a Writ of Habeas Corpus to the end that he be given the redress due him after proper hearing in said Court.”
District Judge Richmond B. Keech, to whom the foregoing application was submitted, issued a rule against the superintendent of St. Elizabeths to show cause why a writ of habeas corpus should not issue. The comprehensive return made to the rule is here reproduced in full, because it must be considered in the disposition of this case:
“The return and answer on behalf of Dr. Samuel A. Silk, Acting Superintendent, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, to the petition of Raymond M. Stewart, alias James C. Smith, (Ray M. Stewart), on an order of the Court to show cause why writ of ha-beas corpus should not issue:
“In answer to Paragraphs I, II and III of the petition:
“The respondent admits that the petitioner, Raymond M. Stewart, alias James C. Smith, (Ray M. Stewart), is restrained of his liberty in Saint Elizabeths Hospital, but denies that such restraint is illegal.
“The petitioner, Raymond M. Stewart, alias James C. Smith, (Ray M. Stewart), was admitted to Saint Elizabeths Hospital May 14, 1932, in consequence of a temporary commitment signed by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. A copy of this commitment paper is appended hereto, marked Exhibit ‘A’, and prayed to be read as a part of this return.
“On June 1, 1932, this petitioner appeared in Court for a judicial inquiry into his mental condition. The hearing was held before Mr. Justice Letts of the District of Columbia Supreme Court. A lengthy hear*347ing was had at that time, and the petitioner was found of unsound mind and committed to Saint Elizabeths Hospital. A copy of this commitment is appended hereto, marked Exhibit ‘B’, and prayed to be read as a part of this return.
“In answer to Paragraph IV of the petition, the respondent states that the petitioner was committed to Saint Elizabeths Hospital under the name of Raymond M. Stewart and that he has no further knowledge concerning this matter.
“In answer to Paragraphs V, VI, VII, VIII and IX, the respondent states that he has no knowledge of these matters.
“For the further information of the Honorable Court, the respondent wishes to state the following: The petitioner, Raymond M. Stewart, alias James C. Smith, (Ray M. Stewart), has had difficulty in adjusting to society, and has been in conflict with the law for many years. In 1914 the petitioner, then being about nineteen years of age, was arrested on a charge of housebreaking and was out on bail on this charge. Upon return to Court he learned that his bail was to be rescinded and that he was to be sentenced. He thereupon drew a gun, which he had concealed upon his person, and fired it about the court room — said court room being in the District of Columbia. Following this episode, the petitioner was sentenced to six years in the penitentiary, serving in the Maryland State Penitentiary. Shortly after being released from this penitentiary, he received a sentence of from one to twenty years at Mansfield, Ohio, for passing a bad check. About seven months after starting this sentence, he struck a prison guard over the head, rendering him unconscious, and was given an additional sentence of not less than fourteen or more than fifteen months in the State Penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio. Some time during the early part of 1932, he was released from the penitentiary on parole and returned to Washington, D. C., obtaining employment with a hosiery company, selling goods on a house-to-house canvass. Shortly thereafter, relatives noted that he was manifesting peculiar behavior. He would quarrel with relatives and friends, or talk about getting a gun and sending them to the morgue. He spoke of making large sums of money by building houses on credit, although he had no financial standing whatever. Finally, on April 14, 1932, thirteen days after being paroled from prison, he was taken to Gallinger Municipal Hospital for mental observation, being transferred to Saint Elizabeths Hospital May 14, 1932.
“For the further information of the Honorable Court, the respondent wishes to state that the petitioner has filed numerous petitions for a writ of habeas corpus in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia, among which were Habeas Corpus No. 1676 filed December 20, 1932, the writ being discharged January 4, 1933; Habeas Corpus No. 1886 filed April 7, 1937, the writ being discharged April 15, 1937; Habeas Corpus No. 1944 filed June 7, 1939, the writ being discharged June 17, 1939. In another petition for a writ of Habeas Corpus, No. 2089, Mr. Justice Bo-litha J. Laws, after examining previous writs, denied the issaunce of a writ of ha-beas corpus, on the grounds that no new matters had been set forth other than the petitioner’s allegation that he was sane and that he was able to tell right from wrong.
“For the further information of the Honorable Court, the respondent states that on April 5, 1944, the petitioner, Raymond M. Stewart, alias James C. Smith, (Ray M. Stewart), appeared in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia for hearing in Ha-beas Corpus No. 2567. A full and complete hearing was had, following which the Presiding Justice, Honorable James W. Morris, discharged the writ, dismissed the petition, and remanded the petitioner into the custody of the respondent.
“For the further information of the Honorable Court, the respondent states that on December 13, 1946, the petitioner, Raymond M. Stewart, alias James C. Smith (Ray M. Stewart), appeared in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia for hearing in Habeas Corpus No. 3118. A full and complete hearing was had, following which the Presiding Justice, *348Honorable T. Alan Goldsborough, discharged the writ, dismissed the petition, and remanded the petitioner into the custody of the respondent.
“Since his admission to Saint Elizabeths Hospital, the petitioner has been under the care and observation of the respondent, as well as other members of the Staff of Saint Elizabeths Hospital, skilled in the care, diagnosis and treatment of nervous and mental disorders, who are of the opinion that he is of unsound mind, suffering from Psychosis, Paranoid Type, with Psychopathic Personality, and that he would be dangerous to himself and others were he to be discharged into the community.”
The matter was disposed of in the District Court by Judge Letts, who entered the following order:
“Upon consideration of the petition, the rule to show cause, and the return and answer thereto, it is by the Court this 17th day of September, 19'48,
“Ordered, That the petition be dismissed, the rule to show cause discharged, and the petitioner remanded to the custody of the respondent.”
The case is before us on appeal from this order, it being asserted by the appellant that “The District Court erred in failing to grant to Appellant a hearing upon the issue of fact posed by the petition and the return to the rule to show cause.”
Having assigned error in that language, able counsel appointed by us to act for appellant attempted in his brief to establish the proposition that when an application for the writ states facts constituting illegal detention, a hearing to determine those factual issues is mandatorily required.1 Appellant’s brief also stated, either additionally or alternatively, that a hearing must be afforded to determine issues of fact posed by the application for the writ and the return to the rule to show cause.2 The two theses differ widely. An application *349legally sufficient to show unlawful restraint clearly requires the judge to issue the writ itself or a show cause rule. But a question crucial in this case is, must a hearing be. held on the factual allegations of an application standing alone, even though an untraversed return to the show cause rule shows, when considered with the application and relevant court records, that no genuine issues of fact are present? Appellant’s counsel said he had prolonged his argument on the. point that a hearing must be afforded on factual issues tendered by a petition for the writ, when considered alone, “in view of the fact that district courts have in other cases considered themselves as having some sort of discretion as to whether or not they will grant hearings, and in view of the ambiguous language of this Court in certain prior cases * *
The charge of ambiguity is not without foundation. There is some confusion and obiter dictum in judicial writing concerning habeas corpus, to which this court has contributed probably more than its share. This has resulted, I think, from conscientious efforts of courts to interpret governing statutes so as to preserve the traditional writ as the individual’s effective protection against unlawful restraint, and at the same time to prevent its abuse by him who makes repeated applications upon substantially the same factual situation after previous hearing and denial. This is a balance difficult to achieve, especially when the perpetual petitioner is a mental patient whose renewed allegation of sanity may be true although in former applications it was untrue.
I turn to the governing statute to see whether it supports the contention of appellant’s counsel that judges have no discretion about granting hearings for the determination of factual issues raised by the application alone, but must grant such hearings if the facts pleaded therein, without more, amount as a matter of law to illegal detention.
It is important to note that we are now concerned with a new statute on habeas corpus which was enacted on June 25, 1948, and became ■ effective on September 1 of that year.3- It is not a question what the ancient practice was at common law nor what the practice was prior to the enactment of the present Code provisions. The question is what is required by the present statute.4 In some respects at least the new legislation has made obsolete judicial opinions rendered before its enactment.
Upon receipt of an application for ha-beas corpus a district court must examine it,5 I think with the presence and assistance of counsel, to determine whether “it ap pears from the application that the applicant or person detained” is entitled thereto. (Emphasis supplied.) Thus each application is subjected to a sort of automatic demurrer. If its allegations, considered without reference to any other document or source of material, are held to be insufficient as a matter of law to show illegal detention, the application will be dismissed. But if the applicant’s allegations are legally sufficient to constitute such detention, the statute simply says the court “shall forthwith award the writ or issue an order directing the respondent to show cause why the writ should not be granted”.
It does not provide, as appellant would have it, that a hearing must be had on the issues of fact tendered by those allegations alone. Instead of doing that, § 2243 requires the filing of a pleading responsive to the application by saying that, when served with the writ or show cause order, *350the respondent “shall make a return certifying the true cause of the detention.” With the issues thus formed, allegations of fact having been made by one party and denied or avoided by the other,6 the statute says “a day shall be set for hearing”.
Obviously, the hearing so contemplated is to enable the court to decide the issues of fact raised by the pleadings of the parties. It is equally obvious, although not spelled out in the statute, that, before proceeding into such a hearing, it is the duty of the court to examine the entire record, together with the records of relevant prior proceedings,7 in the presence and with the aid of counsel, to decide the legal question whether there is in truth any genuine issue of fact to be tried. It would be idle and futile to go into a hearing concerning non-existing factual issues.
At that stage of the proceeding, the statute requires that, if the application for the writ and the return of the respondent present issues of fact, the respondent must produce at the hearing the body of the applicant, and “The Court shall summarily hear and determine the facts, and dispose of the matter as law and justice require.” On the other hand, if the application for the writ and the return thereto present only issues of law, the applicant’s presence at the hearing is not required. The court should then summarily determine the questions of law and “dispose of the matter as law and justice require.”
The provisions of the 1948 statute summarized above seem to me to be free from ambiguity. They require us, I think, to reject appellant’s argument that a court sitting in habeas corpus is bound to conduct a hearing on the factual allegations of an application for the writ merely because the application is legally sufficient on its face, in complete disregard of the responsive pleading and such background material as may be available to be noticed judicially. But I have no difficulty in accepting appellant’s alternative or additional argument, that a hearing must be held to resolve factual issues disclosed by all the pleadings, construed in connection with the court’s own records of any prior proceedings brought by the same petitioner.
I am thus brought to a consideration of the sharply contested question whether in this case the petition for the writ and the return to the rule to show cause, examined in the light of the proceedings on Stewart’s numerous earlier applications, presented any substantial issue of fact with respect to which the trial judge should have heard evidence. If there was such an issue, the court erred in discharging the show cause rule and dismissing the application for the writ; if no such issue was made, the court was correct in dismissing the application.
Appellant’s counsel vigorously insists that the question of sanity was clearly presented. It was posed, he says, by the applicant’s averment that his alleged mental incompetency “is false”, and “that he is of sound mind as he knows right from wrong.” Counsel finds in respondent’s return nothing more than a denial of these allegations, and therefore sees the issue of present sanity clearly revealed. Appellee counters by saying the application, considered as a whole, does not plead a recovery of sanity but merely repeats the allegations of former petitions which had been decided against the appellant; and that, fairly construed, the application merely alleges that Stewart was fraudulently adjudged insane and that, as he never was of unsound mind, he is not now. The government contends, therefore, that no new issue of present sanity is shown.
In deciding a question such as this I think the trial judge is expressly authorized by § 2244 8 to exercise a sound dis*351cretion. In construing the pleadings he should view them realistically in order to find the meaning fairly attributable to them. In doing so, the judge should not hold the petitioner to the niceties of technical pleading; but neither should he isolate from context and background certain of the applicant’s averments in order to find in them a connotation authorizing a hearing concerning them, when such connotation is belied not only by the responsive pleading but also by the complete text of the application itself.
Stewart’s allegation that he “is of sound mind as he knows right from wrong”, relying as it does on the test usually employed in criminal cases, says no more than that he is sufficiently sane to be answerable for any criminal act. A person may have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and so may be responsible for a crime which he commits and yet may have a condition of mind so impaired or deranged as to cause a deviation from normal conduct.9 It may be conceded, therefore, for the purpose of the discussion, that Stewart knows right from wrong. The return to the rule alleges, however, that he is suffering from a paranoid type of psychosis; that is, that he is a paranoiac. The term paranoia is defined for the layman by Webster as “A chronic mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions of persecution and of one’s own greatness, sometimes with hallucinations.” The applicant did not traverse or otherwise plead to this allegation of the return, as he was privileged to do. His own affirmative allegation that he knows right from wrong is not in conflict with the charge that he suffers from paranoia. Moreover, certain allegations of the application tend to confirm the allegation that he is a paranoiac; he alleges, as he has done many times before, that he is a victim of persecution by conspirators who had him fraudulently adjudged insane in order to defraud him of his property. He repeats that the name under which he was committed is not his, that he was without benefit of counsel at the “false adjudication” and that he was not allowed to speak in his own behalf. These charges run through all his applications, and their repetition shows that when he filed the present application Stewart had the “systematized delusions of persecution” which characterize the chronic mental disorder known as paranoia.
Appellant’s brief says that in his application he “claimed that he was sane and was no longer of unsound mind”, and speaks of “opportunities to prove that he had recovered his sanity”. The application contains no such allegation. It does not claim recovered sanity, but asserts he is not and has never been insane. It “contains nothing, directly or by inference, to indicate an alteration in appellant’s mental state” since the last previous hearing; “and that much, at least, we think should be required.” Ex parte Jordan, 1946, 81 U.S.App.D.C. 308, 158 F.2d 401.
The District Court’s conclusion that in this proceeding there was no new ground for the writ which had not theretofore been presented and determined seems to us to have been based upon a practical and intelligent consideration of the pleadings. I think its judgment should be affirmed.
The full Court expresses its deep appreciation for the able representation of appellant by the late Mr. Mallory R. Smith, appointed by this Court in that behalf.

. The fact that the appellant argues that the factual allegations of the petition alone, if sufficient in law, must be determined in a hearing appears from the following passages found in his brief:
“The error which was committed below which should require a reversal by this Court, was the failure of the District Judge to grant a hearing on the issue of appellant’s sanity or insanity after the issue clearly had been raised by the petition. * * *
“The most obvious reason why the denial of a hearing constituted error on the part of the District Judge is that the statutory provisions governing habeas corpus proceedings unequivocally state that a petitioner is entitled to be brought before a judge and to introduce evidence on issues of fact raised by the petition, and that the court must ‘hear and determine’ the facts. * * * * * * * ’ *
“Where issues of fact are raised by a petition for habeas corpus, the law has long been dear that the judge must grant a hearing, determine the facts of the case on such a hearing, and on the basis of the facts found make the proper disposition of the case. * * * • * * * •
“The Supreme Court has in many other cases indicated that a petitioner is entitled to a hearing on facts raised in his petition for habeas corpus and that a lower court that disposes of such a petition without granting a hearing must be reversed. B. g., Cochran v. Kansas, 1942, 316 U.S. 255, 62 S.Ct. 1068, 86 L.Ed. 1453.
* * * *' *
“The rule that a hearing is required where a determinative issue of fact is presented by petition for habeas corpus is in no way upset by the decision of this Court in Dorsey v. Gill, * * ' * there is nothing in that decision to indicate that the district court is relieved of the requirement of granting a hearing where there is an issue of fact presented by the petition. * * * * * * * *
“ * * * Where the issue of present sanity is raised by the petition, a hearing must be held on that issue. * * * ” [Emphasis supplied throughout.]

. This contention is shown by the following excerpts from appellant’s brief:
“ * * * The petition plus the return to the order to show cause clearly posed .a factual issue which should have been resolved by a hearing, with both sides given the opportunity of introducing evidence. * * *
* * * ■ * *
“ * * * This. Court’s discussion [in Dorsey v. Gill] * * * should not be construed as indicating that there is any discretion in the court as to whether or not to grant a hearing where, as in the *349present case, an examination of the petition and the return to the rule to show cause clearly reveals that a determinative factual issue is posed. * * * * * * * *
“ * * * an error was, committed in not granting a hearing on the issue' of fact posed by the petition and the return, * * * ” [Emphasis supplied.]

. 62 Stat. 9.64 et seg., June 25, 1948, ch. 646, § 1, 28 U.S.C.A. 2241 et seq.

. Walker v. Johnston, 1941, 312 U.S. 275, 285, 61 S.Ct. 574, 85 L.Ed. 830.

. Under the statute, a district court may not refuse to “entertain” an application presented to it. Only the Supreme Court, a justice thereof, or a circuit judge may refuse to do so.

. The applicant may deny any of the facts set forth in the return or allege any other material facts, and may amend any suggestions which he has made against the return. § 2243.

. In performing this duty the judge is not restricted to an examination of the application only, as of course he had been in considering what we have called the automatic demurrer to the petition.

. The text of § 2244 is as follows: “No circuit or district judge shall be required to entertain an application for a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the detention of a person pursuant to a judgment of a court of the United States, *351or of any State, if it appears that the legality of such detention has been determined by a judge or court of the United States on a prior application for a writ of habeas corpus and the petition presents no new ground not theretofore presented and determined, and the judge or court is satisfied that the ends of justice will not be served by such inquiry.”

. Compare Ashley v. Pescor, 8 Cir., 1945, 147 F.2d 318.