ZINERMON V. BURCH

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today. Our case is Zinnerman, ZNR. Mon versus Birch four
nine four US one one three. Question is can an
incompetent individual consent to voluntary hospitalization? Darryl Birch was admitted
to the Florida State Mental Hospital in nineteen eighty one
after being found wandering in a highway in Tallahassee were
hallucinating telling officials he was in heaven. He signed voluntary

(00:24):
admission forms despite never having been evaluated for capacity. Voluntary
admission in Florida required express and informed consent. He later
brought a civil rights action claiming that the hospital had
deprived him of liberty without due process as afforded by
the Fourteenth Amendment. Mister Birch alleged state law was violated
because the hospital should have known that he was incompetent

(00:44):
to give informed consent to sign voluntary forms, Hence, he
was entitled to procedural safeguards of an involuntary admission. The
case was initially dismissed on the basis that while he
was deprived of liberty, post deprivation, remedy was not required. However,
the US Supreme Court ultimately agreed with mister Birch it
held that because the hospital staff had authority to deprive

(01:07):
persons of liberty, the constitution imposed on them the state's
duty to provide procedural protections. The court contended that it
was foreseeable that a person requesting treatment from mental illness
might not be capable of informed consent, which should be
specifically assessed at the time of admission. The state's violation
of the duty to investigate the patient's competence was truly

(01:29):
predictable and not a random, unauthorized violation of laws. The
state contended, therefore, without deciding the merits of Zennerman specific case,
the court found that pre deprivation due process guarantees were
theoretically possible, quost deprivation remedies should be available, and Zennerman
at least had stated a triable claim