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A case concerning a man with serious mental health issues who went to prison after he killed his grandfather and sued the hospital he was getting treatment from will go before the Indiana Supreme Court.
Indiana justices granted transfer to Zachary Miller v. Laxeshkumar Patel, M.D., et al., 22S-CT-371, for the week ending Nov. 4, while denying transfer to 22 other cases.
In the transferred case, Zachary Miller, on several occasions between December 2016 and early January 2017, went to Community Howard Regional Health’s emergency room and requested admission for his mental illness and dangerous propensities. Each time, he was treated and discharged.
Following one such treatment, on Jan. 9, 2017, Miller killed his grandfather, John. He subsequently pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with 12 years executed.
Miller then filed a proposed complaint for damages with the Indiana Department of Insurance, alleging the treatment providers had committed medical malpractice in their treatment of him, which resulted in him suffering mental trauma, emotional distress and loss of his freedom.
A medical review panel found that the providers failed to comply with the appropriate standard of care and that the failure was ultimately a factor in the resulting alleged damages. Miller then filed a complaint for damages against the providers in the Howard Superior Court, but the trial court granted summary judgment for the providers.
The Court of Appeals of Indiana reversed that decision in May, concluding Miller’s case presented the same problem found in Rimert v. Mortell, 680 N.E.2d 867 (Ind. Ct. App. 1997), trans. denied — a lack of clarity as to whether Miller was legally responsible for his criminal act of murder.
Ultimately, the COA concluded that public policy should not preclude Miller from attempting to rebut the facts as established by his criminal conviction and prove that he was criminally insane at the time of the killing and, thus, not responsible for the act.
Further, looking at collateral estoppel, judges concluded Miller did not have a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue of his criminal responsibility in the criminal case.
Two of the cases that were denied transfer didn’t have unanimous concurrences.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justice Geoffrey Slaughter voted to grant transfer in John L. Smith v. State of Indiana, 22A-PC-593.
In that case, John Smith claimed the post-conviction court erred when it found that he had knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered into his guilty plea and, thus, denied his petition for relief. In June, the COA affirmed.
In the other case, Romeo Minga v. State of Indiana, 21A-CR-2177, Rush voted to grant the petition to transfer.
There, Romeo Minga was found asleep in the driver’s seat of a running vehicle and had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.185. Minga was ultimately charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and unsuccessfully argued that his case should be dismissed, claiming police illegally searched his car.
The COA affirmed in June.
A full list of the transfer decisions can be found here.
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