# Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities v. Civil Service Commission

> Illinois Supreme Court · June 26, 1981 · 85 Ill. 2d 547

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6984526

## Case

- **Full name:** THE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES v. THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION (Wayne C. DuFrenne, Appellant)
- **Court:** Illinois Supreme Court
- **Decided:** June 26, 1981
- **Citations:** 85 Ill. 2d 547; 55 Ill. Dec. 560; 426 N.E.2d 885; 1981 Ill. LEXIS 317
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Ward
- **Judges:** Moran, Ward
- **Cited by:** 70 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6984526

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- affirming Commis- sion's decision to suspend the defendant in lieu of discharge where the defendant, when punched and scratched by a patient, "'punched and kicked [the] patient who was under restraint'"; the Commission found that the reaction was not calculated but was a resul…

## Opinion text

MR. JUSTICE WARD, dissenting:
I respectfully disagree with the conclusion of the majority. I would affirm the judgments of the circuit and appellate courts, which upheld the position of the Department of Mental Health and Departmental Disabilities that the misconduct here constitutes cause for discharge.
The Department is responsible for the treatment of mentally ill persons, who require and have a right to society’s understanding care. The Department is best informed as to the qualifications for those personnel to whom the welfare of these patients is entrusted. It deemed that discharge here would be necessary because of the character of the misconduct and possibly because only that sanction would be an effective deterrent against similar mistreatment of patients. I consider that the Commission’s disposition did not adequately relate to the sensitive requirements for proper care of the mentally ill.
In another setting, a lesser sanction could be appropriate. I do not, however, think that the continued employment of an attendant whose loss of self-control lead him to punch and kick a mental patient who was under restraint can be condoned.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6984526. Public record. Not legal advice.