STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, APPELLANT,
v.
STEVEN BILLS, APPELLEE
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The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services appealed a trial court's civil contempt order imposing a $150/day fine for failing to place an incompetent defendant in a hospital within eight weeks due to lack of bed space. The appellate court reversed, holding that HRS lacked the present ability to comply with the placement order and therefore could not be held in civil contempt.
HRS cannot be held in civil contempt because it lacked the present ability to comply with the trial court's placement order. Civil contempt requires both that the party have the present ability to comply with the order and that it willfully refuse to do so.
[1] A party cannot be held in civil contempt unless the court finds that the party has the present ability to comply with the order and willfully refuses to do so.
[2] A court order imposing daily fines for failure to place an individual in an appropriate facility, from which the party can purge the contempt by compliance, constitutes a…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Before a trial court can hold a party in civil contempt, it must make a finding that the party has the present ability to comply with the order and willfully refuses to do so.”
States the legal standard for civil contempt that the trial court failed to satisfy
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceSteven Bills was charged with sexual battery and lewd acts in 1991. He was found incompetent to stand trial due to organic personality disorder, condu…
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PATTERSON, Judge.
The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) appeals from the trial court’s order finding HRS to be in civil contempt of court. We reverse.
In 1991, the appellee, Steven Bills, was charged with eight counts of sexual battery and two counts of lewd acts.' On motion of the public defender, the trial court ordered Bills to be examined to determine his competency to stand trial. Bill E. Mosman, Ph.D., examined Bills and found that he had an organic personality disorder, a conduct disorder, organic brain damage, and was incompetent and in need of hospitalization. Bills was committed to HRS and hospitalized at the Florida State Hospital. In 1993, the Hospital determined Bills to be competent, and released him to the Lee County Jail. Due to lapses in his medication and the nature of his confinement, Bills’ condition deteriorated.
Mosman examined Bills again and reaffirmed his prior findings. He determined that Bills’ brain damage caused him to function at a nine or ten-year-old level. He again determined Bills to be incompetent to stand trial. After some haggling between the trial court and HRS as to the type of facility to which Bills should be committed, the court again committed Bills to the Florida State Hospital. At this point in the proceedings, HRS informed the court that Bills could not be placed in the Hospital for approximately eight weeks because of lack of bed space caused by a lack of funding by the legislature. Neither Bills nor the prosecutor rebutted this assertion.
The trial court responded with an order which states in pertinent part: “[T]hat the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services shall be fined $150.00 per day, from this day forward, for each day that the Defendant is still in the custody of the Lee County Jail pending placement by the Department in an appropriate facility.” The order does not make a finding of contempt or a determination of HRS’s ability to comply; however, the nature of the order is one of civil contempt from which HRS could purge itself by removing Bills from the Lee County Jail.
Before a trial court can hold a party in civil contempt, it must make a finding that the party has the present ability to comply with the order and willfully refuses to do so. Bowen v. Bowen, 471 So. 2d 1274 (Fla.1985). Going beyond the obvious fatal deficiencies in the order’s form, HRS could in no event, under the facts presented, be found to be in contempt. It stood unrebutted that HRS did not have the ability to immediately transport Bills to the Florida State Hospital, or any other facility. See Florida Dep’t of HRS v. State, 616 So. 2d 66 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993).
Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s contempt order. CAMPBELL, A.C.J., and THREADGILL, J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Dep't OF Child. & Families v. R.H., 819 So. 2d 858 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)…habilitative Servs. v. Maxwell, 667 So. 2d 980 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) (concluding that trial court failed to make express finding in order that HRS had ability to comply with court’s directives); State, Dep’t of Health & Rehabilitative Servs. v. Bills, 661 So. 2d 69, 70 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995) (stating, "Before a trial court can hold a party in civil contempt, it must make a finding that the party has the present ability to comply with the order ....”) (citation omitted); Brown v. Brown, 658 So. 2d 627 (Fla. 5th DCA…
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Dep't OF Child. & Fam. Servs. v. M.H. & State of Fla., 830 So. 2d 849 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002)…bilitative Servs. v. V.L., 583 So. 2d 765 (Fla. 5th DCA 1991). The same restrictions are imposed upon circuit courts with regard to DCF’s'treatment of adult offenders who are committed for treatment. Dep’t of Health & Rehabilitative Servs. v. Bills, 661 So. 2d 69 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995) (finding that contempt sanction is impermissible when it stood unrebutted that the department did not have the ability to transport the criminal defendant to any treatment facility); Quiala v. State, 659 So. 2d 287 (Fla. 3d DCA 19…
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State v. Maxwell, 667 So. 2d 980 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996)…period of 28 days. We reverse the order of contempt. HRS’ evidence that it could not comply with the order because no bed space was available due to inadequate funding was unrebutted. See Florida Dep’t of Health and Rehabilitative Servs. v. Bills, 661 So. 2d 69 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995). Further, the order is technically deficient because the trial court failed to make an express finding that HRS had the ability to comply with the court’s directives. See Florida Coast Bank of Pompano Beach [*981] v. Mayes, 433 So…
Authorities Cited
- Eugenia Bowen & the Fla. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs. v. Bowen, 471 So. 2d 1274 (Fla. 1985)
- Fla. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs. v. State, 616 So. 2d 66 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993)