Department of Mental Health v. Coty

This suit is another attack on the constitutionality of the reimbursement sections of the Mental Health Code. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1961, chap. 91 Ji, pars. 9 — 19 through 9 — 25.) Section 9 — 19 provides that certain patients in a State hospital are liable for maintenance charges, and if the patient is unable to pay or his estate is insufficient, the patient’s parents together with other designated members of the family are liable.

The action was instituted by the Attorney General of Illinois against the defendant, Louis Coty, the father of a mentally retarded son in Lincoln State School to…