E.S. v. State

Summary

The Vermont Supreme Court dismissed as moot an appeal from a family court order finding probable cause to hold E.S. for involuntary mental health treatment pending a preliminary hearing. The court held that neither the negative-collateral-consequences exception nor the capable-of-repetition exception to mootness applied, and that the challenged probable-cause order was not final for purposes of appeal. The court did not decide whether the exclusionary rule applied to the preliminary hearing and expressly declined to endorse the lawfulness of the restraint imposed by VA hospital personnel.

Holdings

1. The appeal was moot because E.S. had been released from custody and the State had dismissed its application for involuntary treatment, leaving no live controversy that the Court could resolve by affecting his custodial status.
2. The possible negative collateral consequences of E.S.'s detention did not avoid mootness because he was never formally adjudicated mentally ill, never subjected to an order of involuntary treatment, and never received a full commitment hearing.
3. The capable-of-repetition-yet-evading-review exception did not apply because there was no reasonable expectation that E.S. would again be subject to the same action.
4. The probable-cause order was not a final judgment, and E.S. could not obtain interlocutory review without permission from the Supreme Court.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the appeal was moot after E.S. was released and the State dismissed the involuntary-treatment application.
2. Whether an exception to mootness applied because of likely negative collateral consequences or because the challenged action was capable of repetition yet evading review.
3. Whether the probable-cause detention order was a final judgment or was otherwise properly reviewable by interlocutory appeal.
4. Whether the exclusionary rule applied to evidence offered at the preliminary probable-cause hearing.

Disposition

dismissed