Court Opinion

ID: 9689313
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:27:23.063617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:46.898181
License: Public Domain

YETKA, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I would find that the defendants acted beyond the scope of their authority in releasing Tom Connolly without court approval. Here, the juvenile court specifically ordered treatment in a structured setting and required periodic treatment progress reports to be filed every 90 days. In this case, the report to the court was made only 3 days before Tom was released and did not contain any mention of the intention to release Tom for a holiday visit.
The rule, as we established in McCorkell v. City of Northfield, 266 Minn. 267, 123 N.W.2d 367 (1963), is that the doctrine of discretionary immunity does not apply where specific standards of conduct as set forth in statutes, regulations, or court orders are violated. See also Wilson v. City of Eagan, 297 N.W.2d 146 (Minn.1980). In the instant case, defendants violated the provisions of a court order and regulations of the Department of Welfare. Tom was under the continuing jurisdiction of the Ramsey County Juvenile Court and had been adjudicated a delinquent. In 1977, pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 260.185 (1980), the juvenile court transferred supervision and legal custody of Tom to the Ramsey County Welfare Department. Shortly after, Tom was transferred to the Brainerd State Hospital-Minnesota Learning Center for treatment. During this time, the juvenile court received progress reports about Tom, learned of the fires in which Tom was implicated and issued a series of orders concerning Tom’s status and placement. Yet, without first seeking court approval, the Minnesota Learning Center unilaterally released Tom for an unsupervised 2-week home furlough. In releasing Tom in this manner, the Minnesota Learning Center violated the juvenile court order, Minn.Stat. § 260.185 (1980), and the requirements of 12 M.C.A.R. § 2.034 D4 (1978).
In the series of orders dealing with Tom, the juvenile court evinced both an interest in treating Tom and in protecting the public from Tom’s pyromania. For this reason, the juvenile court ordered Tom confined at the Minnesota Learning Center and directed that Tom be placed in a structured behavioral program subject to court review. The juvenile court did not make a provision for temporary home visits of any duration; rather, the juvenile court ordered in-patient treatment and specified that it was to be notified of changes in placement or in the case of release. The majority argues that the juvenile court was aware that the Minnesota Learning Center often encouraged home visits as a part of treatment. That may be true, but whether the juvenile court was aware of that policy is irrelevant to this case; in the proper situation, Tom could have been granted temporary leave. The importance of the court order, however, is that these leaves should not have been granted without prior notification to the juvenile court. There is no reason why court approval could not have been obtained in the progress report filed 3 days prior to Tom’s release.
Moreover, by not advising the juvenile court of Tom’s release, defendants violated 12 M.C.A.R. § 2.034 D4 (1978). Once Tom was admitted to the Minnesota Learning Center, the defendants were obligated to comply with that regulation. The regulation provides that in the case of release:
c. Procedures shall be established so that:

(2) The court or other appropriate authorities are notified when a resident’s release might endanger either the individual or society.
*28The majority attempts to dismiss this regulation by implying that it applies only to permanent release. Nowhere in the regulations is “release” defined, however. As is amply demonstrated by this case, a temporary unsupervised release of a dangerous patient is as potentially harmful as permanent release; in this case, Tom was suspected of setting at least two fires at the treatment center. Since the clear intent of that regulation is to protect the public, I would interpret release to apply to permanent release, furloughs and temporary home visits.
In addition, I would find that, regardless of the court order and Department of Welfare regulations, defendants are not protected by the doctrine of discretionary immunity. Rather, when an act is performed on the operational as opposed to the planning level of government, discretionary immunity does not apply.1 Larson v. Independent School District No. 314, 289 N.W.2d 112 (Minn.1980).
As we noted in Larson, the doctrine of discretionary immunity should be narrowly construed as an exception to the general rule of liability as set forth in Minn.Stat. § 466.03, subd. 6 (1980). Larson at 20. Although an argument can be made that the decision to release Tom temporarily was discretionary, any doubts must be resolved in favor of liability. Here, defendants were not choosing the type of treatment Tom was to receive — that had already been determined — but were involved only in the implementation of that treatment. The court had determined that Tom was to be treated in a structured environment. The Minnesota Learning Center where Tom was confined had a policy of encouraging home visits and freedom from unnecessary constraints on the patient. The decision to place Tom in this environment was clearly discretionary; the specific decision to grant Tom a home leave was not, but was only a decision at the operational level in furtherance of Tom’s more general treatment program.
The case of White v. United States, 317 F.2d 13 (4th Cir. 1963) is illustrative of this point. There, the court of appeals found the decision to accord freedom of movement to a patient who later committed suicide not to be discretionary. The court stated:
While the policy embodied in the Veterans Administration Regulations that patients should be allowed the maximum of freedom warranted by their condition is a discretionary decision, the application of that policy to an individual case is not within the category of policy decisions exempted by the statute. The application of that policy to the individual case is an administrative decision at the operational level which if negligently done will make the Government liable * * *.
Id. at 17. Similarly, this case also involved the mere application of a general policy to an individual and therefore was not discretionary.
For the above reasons, I would reverse the summary judgment granted for defendants and, accordingly, I dissent.

. The majority warns that this distinction is not dispositive and that any analysis must involve more than mere labeling. I agree. I disagree, however, with the majority’s examination of the nature of the governmental act. Based on an analysis of the nature of the act of releasing Tom, I would conclude that the act occurred on the operational level of activity.