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New Mexico Department of Health v. Compton6/14/2000
der and promptness, we believe that the mandatory hearing requirements in the Code are not jurisdictional. We consider the Code's hearing provisions to be procedural requirements, the purpose of which is to provide order and promptness. As a consequence, we find it necessary to review whether the failure to comply with the hearing deadline prejudiced Respondent.
2. Prejudice
When we review the facts of this case under a prejudice analysis, we emphasize that Respondent should have been released from LVMC on February 25, 1999, when he did not receive a hearing. However, Respondent was not prejudiced as a result of his additional seven-day detention. At the time of his appeal, Respondent had already been released from LVMC and was kept there no longer than he would have been had his hearing been timely. Respondent does not allege, and there is nothing in the record indicating, that Respondent would not have been committed for thirty days had his hearing been held in a timely manner. Also, because there is no indication in the record that Respondent sought to be released on February 25, 1999, or objected to the continuance of his seven-day hearing until the hearing was held seven days later, the district court was unable to grant him dismissal as a remedy. In addition, because the failure to grant a timely hearing did not deprive the district court of jurisdiction, the court had jurisdiction to order both a thirty-day commitment and a treatment guardian, based on the evidence before it.
Conclusion
Because Respondent suffered no prejudice as a result of the statutory violation, we affirm the orders of the district court.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
JAMES J. WECHSLER, Judge
I CONCUR: MICHAEL D. BUSTAMANTE, Judge
M. CHRISTINA ARMIJO, Judge, specially concurring
ARMIJO, Judge, specially concurring.
I concur in the opinion entered by the Court this day. However, where, as in the case of Fred Compton, liberty interests are implicated, it is troubling for a person who is involuntarily confined that the remedy of dismissal rests solely upon an analysis of prejudice. This is tantamount to the lack of any effective remedy under the statute, leaving as an open question: What are the protections for these violated liberty interests?
M. CHRISTINA ARMIJO, Judge
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