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Heater v. Southwood Psychiatric Center2/13/1996
NARES, J.
Robert Heater (Heater) appeals from entry of judgment terminating his suit against Southwood Psychiatric Center and other defendants (collectively, Southwood) for false imprisonment, assault and battery, and medical malpractice. The trial Judge found Southwood and the other defendants had detained Heater with probable cause, and the immunity noted in Welfare and Institutions Code section 5278 (part of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS Act)) applied to the detention.
Heater asserts the trial court in this case improperly determined the defendants herein were immune from liability. Southwood claims on this appeal the immunity in question is absolute, and no probable cause determination was required. We reject all of these challenges, and affirm the judgment.
STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. Synopsis
A young man is murdered. His brother becomes withdrawn and despondent and drinks to excess. The brother expresses a need for help. When assistance is sought, the brother also expresses homicidal and suicidal thoughts. Eventually the brother is detained for some days, treated, and then he is released when Judged no longer a danger to himself or to others. Welfare and Institutions Code section 5278 provides that individuals authorized to detain "shall not be held either criminally or civilly liable for exercising this authority in accordance with the law." The trial Judge found the statute applicable herein. We proceed to a detailed review of the facts below.
2. Ronald Heater's Murder and the Effects on Robert Heater
Robert Heater's older brother, Ronald, was murdered on March 21, 1991, at the age of 26. Heater was 23 years old at the time. Although Heater had been living away from his parents, he moved back in with them shortly after his brother's murder. His mother, Beverly Charles, noticed that Heater, who had always been "an outgoing person" and "happy-go-lucky," had now changed. Mrs. Charles could notice the odor of alcohol on him, and Heater was "keeping everything inside."
3. The Evening of April 15, 1991
On the evening of April 15, 1991, Heater came home from work. His mother could tell he had been drinking. Heater sat silently on the couch for a while, and then he began to cry. He told his mother, "Mom, I need help." She asked him if he was sure he needed help and Heater kept repeating that he needed to talk with someone. Heater's mother felt her "child falling apart" and determined to seek help for him that evening.
Heater's stepfather, Donald Charles, called two other locations to try to get help for Heater before he called Southwood and spoke to Brent Bowers, an intake counselor. Believing that Heater's "parents were in crisis," Bowers told Mr. Charles to bring Heater to Southwood.
4. Southwood and the Bowers Interview
Later that evening, Heater's parents brought him to Southwood, where they met with Bowers. Heater told Bowers he wanted to "get" the people who murdered his brother. When asked how he would "get" these people, Heater said "they should have the same thing done to them." Bowers "very much" believed Heater was sincere in making these threats.
Heater's parents gave Bowers the police report on the murder. They told Bowers Heater should not see the report because it contained the location where the murder took place, and Heater's mother "didn't want . . . to have another child taken." Bowers put a note on the report which read: "Patient is not to see this report under any circumstances. This report contains names and numbers of the perpetrators." (Heater's parents did not tell Bowers the murderers were in jail.)
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