Patient Discharged Drunk, Hit By Car: Alcohol Treatment Center Ruled Not Liable
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
April 1998
Quick Summary: The alcohol treatment center was not equipped for detox, so it referred the patient to a facility that was. It was unfortunate he refused to go, but legally it was not the center’s fault.
The alcohol treatment center could not hold a person against his will.
In his lawsuit the patient claimed he was drunk and incapacitated at the time, so the treatment center should have held him whether he wanted to stay or not. COURT OF CLAIMS OF NEW YORK, 1997.
The law is clear that only certain persons like police officers can initiate the process of holding a person involuntarily for mental health reasons and that only certain facilities are authorized to hold persons involuntarily for treatment.
According to the Court of Claims of New York, it follows logically that a person or a treatment center that cannot hold a person involuntarily for mental health reasons is not responsible for the person’s safety if the best effort is made to assist the person but the person refuses help.
This inpatient alcoholism treatment center’s policy was to discharge any patient who became intoxicated. A patient went out and bought a bottle and got drunk. According to the court record, his Breathalyzer reading was .22%. The staff tried to send him to a public detox facility, but he refused. Nor would he go to a nearby rescue mission. Instead he tried to walk home and was hit by a car.
He sued the treatment center, claiming that for his safety he should have been detained at the center against his will until he sobered up. The court dismissed the case. It ruled since the center and its staff had no legal authority to hold a person against his will there was no legal responsibility to do so, even if holding the person might be advantageous for the person’s own safety.
The court noted the treatment center was not equipped for detoxification and did not offer detox services. The court did not expect the treatment center to accommodate this patient in his intoxicated state, but ruled it was appropriate to refer him to a detox facility or at least to try send him somewhere else where he might be reasonably safe.
Mottau v. State of New York, 666 N.Y.S. 2d 878 (Ct. Cl., 1997).