Department of Mental Hygiene of State of California v. Renel

This is a motion for leave to reargue, or in the alternative, for permission to allow an appeal from a determination of this court to the Appellate Division. We have decided to grant the alternative relief, not because of any lack of faith in the affirmance of the action taken by the learned Justice of the City Court, but due to two factors of apparently contradictory nature. The question involved is of great importance to many thousands of people. Yet it has never, so far as we can determine, been litigated before.

The facts are as follows: The defendants, in 1948, being desirous of…