The People of the State of New York, ex rel. Lesley M. DeLia v. Douglas Munsey

The majority holds that a mentally ill patient who was involuntarily committed under article 9 of the Mental Hygiene Law based on a court’s determination that he was a danger to himself and to others should be released without a hearing to determine the status of his mental disability when a retention order has expired, despite the hospital’s proffer of evidence that the patient remains a peril. Indeed, the majority believes that even a *135mentally ill dangerous person must be automatically released, solely because the hospital, due to administrative oversight, failed to timely file an…