Fields v. Colorado State Department of Public Welfare
Fields v. Colorado State Department of Public Welfare
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
In their complaint W. G. Fields and Mabel Fields, hereinafter referred to as the plaintiffs, asserted two claims for relief against the Colorado State Department of Public Welfare and the Colorado State Board of Public Welfare, which agency and Board will hereinafter be referred to as the Department and the Board respectively, or collectively as simply the defendants.
In the first claim for relief the plaintiffs alleged that they were the owners and administrators of the Fields Nursing Home and in this claim they complained about certain action of the Board occurring on May 8, 1964 whereby the plaintiffs were “eliminated from those nursing homes authorized to receive nursing home vendor payments for the care of welfare department public assistance recipients.” More specifically, the plaintiffs averred that the evidence adduced at the hearing before the hearings office did not support the Board’s ultimate finding that the recipients of public assistance in the Fields Nursing Home had been “inhumanely treated” or the further finding that there had been a falsification of records submitted for medical care payments by the Nursing Home. Hence, according to the plaintiffs, the Board had abused its discretion by arbitrary and capricious action. The first claim for relief, therefore, is essentially one seeking judicial review of an administrative decision, namely a ruling by the Board that as of May 8, 1964 the plaintiffs were to be cut off from all nursing home vendor payments from the medical care fund.
The second claim for relief is essentially one in mandamus and for the recovery of money allegedly due the plaintiffs by the Department. In this second claim the plaintiffs alleged that the Fields Nursing Home was
By answer the defendants generally denied the allegations of the complaint, as such have been summarized above. Also, the defendants tendered the record as theretofore made before the Board.
Thereafter by appropriate order of court this matter came on for trial on the “first cause of action only.” In its ultimate ruling on the matter the trial court first denied the plaintiffs’ oral motion to amend the caption of the case to include Fields, Inc., and to amend the complaint so as to show Fields, Inc. as the owner of the nursing home and W. G. and Mabel Fields as the administrators thereof. Then the trial court proceeded to affirm the decision of the Board and accordingly dismissed, not just the first claim, but the entire complaint. The trial court additionally held that the plaintiffs had no capacity to maintain the action and ruled that the complaint in toto should be dismissed for that reason too.
The plaintiffs thereafter again filed a motion, this time in written form, seeking leave of court to file an amended complaint wherein Fields, Inc., a corporation,
The defendants then filed a motion in which they “stipulated” that Fields, Inc. be made an additional party plaintiff, on the condition that in such event they would then be permitted to file a counterclaim for alleged overpayments to Fields, Inc.
However, the trial court denied plaintiffs’ motion to file an amended complaint adding Fields, Inc. as an additional party plaintiff and then denied the defendants’ motion for leave to file a counterclaim. Also, the trial court denied plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial. A supplemental motion for a new trial pointed out that the judgment of dismissal was in any event too broad, as the second claim was by specific order of court not even involved in the earlier proceeding which by order of court was limited to a consideration of the first claim only. This motion was denied. By writ of error the plaintiffs now seek reversal of the judgment dismissing their complaint.
Under the circumstances outlined above the trial court erred in dismissing the entire complaint. By agreement of the parties, confirmed by an express order of court, the trial of this matter was limited to the first claim of the complaint. In this setting, then, the second claim was not even before the trial court, and it was of course error to enter a judgment which was so broad as to include dismissal of the second claim. This part of the judgment must therefore be reversed.
However, that portion of the judgment of the trial court dismissing the first claim of the complaint is under the circumstances proper and should be affirmed. The trial court, as we understand it, dismissed the first claim on two grounds: (1) that the decision of the board was correct and should therefore be affirmed; or in the
The defendants argue that the medical care payments provided for in the Colo, const. Art. XXIV, § 7(c) and by C.R.S. 1963, 101-1-1, et seq. are but a part of the total pension given an individual old age pensioner. Ergo, it is argued, this is strictly a matter between the individual pensioner and the Department and one in which the plaintiffs as operators of a nursing home where pensioners reside have no interest at all. Furthermore, according to the argument of the defendants, the plaintiffs are not “aggrieved persons adversely affected by the agency action,” as that phrase is used in the administrative code, and therefore they have no standing to seek judicial review of the Board’s decision cutting them off from all medical care payments. C.R.S. 1963, 3-16-5.
With this general line of argument we simply do not agree. From the record before us it is clear that for some time prior to May 8, 1964 the plaintiffs had been rendering nursing services to old age pensioners and the defendants had been making medical care payments on behalf of the pensioners directly to the plaintiffs. However, over a period of many months complaints regarding the operation of this home had been received by the Department. Accordingly, the Board determined that a full-scale hearing should be held in order to look into the entire matter. To facilitate the matter the Board directed that one of its “hearing officers” should conduct the actual hearing. In due time this hearing was held, with the Fields at all times being represented by counsel. Upon hearing the Department called some eleven witnesses in support of their basic contention that the Fields’ nursing home was being run not just in a generally unsanitary manner, but that the home really was in a downright filthy condition, and that
In this particular setting it appears to us that the plaintiffs from their point of view, at least, were “aggrieved persons” who were “adversely affected” by the action of the Board. The Board was inquiring, as it had a perfect right to do, into the conduct and operation of this nursing home. The Board then found that the home was so poorly and sloppily run and mismanaged that it would no longer be entitled to medical vendor payments. In a very real sense, then, it was the nursing home which was “on trial” before the Board. Certainly the traditional concept of “fair play” suggests quite strongly that the plaintiffs are somewhere and in some manner entitled to a review of the determination of the Board. And in our view resort to the courts for this review was under the circumstances quite proper.
Our attention has not been directed to any authority bearing directly on the capacity or standing of these plaintiffs to bring this action. In Pearce Hospital Foundation v. Illinois Public Aid Commission, 15 Ill.2d 301,
Our review of the record, however, convinces us that there is ample evidence to support the determination of the Board that the old age pensioners in the plaintiffs’ nursing home were inhumanely treated and that there had been some falsification or misstating of records as to the number and type of personnel on duty at the home. Admittedly this is not a case of inhumane treatment of the type meted out at, for example, the infamous Dachau concentration camp during World War II. But there is nevertheless much evidence in this record to indicate that this nursing home was most unclean and that there was such a lack of sanitation as to warrant the conclusion that the nursing home was generally unfit to house old age pensioners and thereby be entitled to receive a part of their pension monies, namely a medical care payment. We see no need to detail the evidence as to rats scampering across the floors, six patients assigned to one room which had no toilet and but one, open and well-filled, commode and the other incidents of this same general type. Without belaboring the point, we conclude that the record supports the action of the Board.
The judgment of the trial court dismissing the first claim is therefore affirmed. The judgment of the trial court dismissing the second claim, however, is reversed and the cause remanded with the direction that the second claim be reinstated; that thereafter both plaintiffs and defendants be granted the opportunity to amend their pleadings, if they still be so inclined, and that any further proceedings in connection with the
Reference
- Full Case Name
- W. G. Fields and Mabel A. Fields v. Colorado State Department of Public Welfare and Colorado State Board of Public Welfare
- Status
- Published