Fourth District Court of Appeals of Ohio

The Fourth District Court of Appeals of Ohio appears in the account as the appellate court reviewing William Stanley Milligan’s transfer from a less restrictive treatment setting to Lima State Hospital. Its April 21, 1981, decision drew a consequential distinction: the transfer proceeding violated Milligan’s rights, but the court concluded that this error did not warrant restoring him to his previous placement.

Review of the Transfer

The appeal concerned Milligan’s removal from a less restrictive setting and placement in the maximum-security Lima State Hospital. The court found that the transfer had occurred without notice to Milligan or his family and without giving him an opportunity to attend, consult counsel, call witnesses, or otherwise receive the protections of a full hearing. It characterized the procedural failure as serious enough that, ordinarily, the transfer order should be reversed and the patient returned to the position he occupied before the proceeding.

Error Without Reversal of Placement

The court nevertheless held that the procedural error was not prejudicial in this case. It relied on the subsequent Allen County hearing, whose findings it presumed rested on sufficient and adequate evidence that Milligan was dangerous to himself and others. Thus, the court criticized the method by which the transfer had been ordered while declining to undo its practical result: Milligan would not be sent back to Athens on the basis of this appeal.

That distinction left the appeal’s outcome narrower than its account of the violation might suggest. The court disagreed with the actions of the lower-court judge, but its ruling did not restore Milligan to his former hospital setting. The procedural protection it recognized and the placement decision it left standing therefore pointed in different directions.

Further Appeal and Significance

Alan Goldsberry and Steve Thompson subsequently appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Ohio. The account does not give the outcome of that later appeal. The Fourth District Court of Appeals’ documented role is consequently specific but important: it identified a defect in the process used to transfer Milligan, while treating the evidence and findings from the later hearing as sufficient to prevent that defect from changing where he was held.