BECAUSE OF A LACK OF PLACEMENT OPTIONS, A CHILD REMOVED FROM SCHOOL WHEN SHE BECAME UNMANAGEABLE REMAINED IN A HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM FOR WEEKS; THE PETITION SOUGHT HER RELEASE FROM THE EMERGENCY ROOM; THE APPEAL WAS DEEMED MOOT BECAUSE THE NYS OFFICE OF PEOPLE WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES HAD FOUND SUITABLE PLACEMENT AND INSTITUTED A PROGRAM TO ENSURE THE PROBLEM WOULD NOT RECUR (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, dismissing the appeal as moot, over an extensive dissent, determined the exception to the mootness doctrine should not be applied because the problem at the heart of the petition had been adequately addressed by the NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). The subject child had been removed from school and sent to a hospital emergency room because she had become unmanageable. The child ended up staying in the emergency room for weeks because suitable placement was not available. The habeas corpus petition sough her release from the emergency room. During the weeks the child was in the emergency room programs were instituted to facilitate prompt suitable placement of children facing similar circumstances:

… [D]uring the pendency of petitioner’s appeal to this Court, OPWDD developed a new program, Crisis Services for Individuals with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities ([CSIDD] 14 NYCRR 635-16.1 et seq.), aimed at preventing persons with developmental disabilities from experiencing a crisis that may result in hospitalization and thereby reducing the likelihood of these issues recurring. At oral argument before this Court, counsel for OPWDD and DOH represented that the services provided by CSIDD are now available throughout the entirety of the State of New York, and particularly in the region where the child resided. Matter of Mental Hygiene Legal Serv. v Delaney, 2022 NY Slip Op 02578, CtApp 4-21-22

Practice Point: An appeal may be dismissed as moot if the appellate court is presented with evidence the underlying issue has been adequately addressed while the appeal was pending. Here a child removed from school because she became unmanageable had been held in a hospital emergency room for weeks because suitable placement was not available. At the time of oral argument, the child had been placed and a program to prevent recurrence of the problem had been instituted.