Hirsh v. State of New York

The State appeals from an affirmance of a judgment against it in the Court of Claims based on alleged negligence in failing to prevent plaintiff’s intestate from committing suicide while he was a patient at the Brooklyn State Hospital. He had a previous history of mental illness at other hospitals where he had made two suicidal attempts, one with phenobarbitol and the other by hanging. This time he succeeded in accomplishing his aim. He was pronounced dead on September 4, 1953 of barbiturate poisoning. Death was caused by swallowing about a dozen capsules of seconal at night.

Nobody knew where…