IN RE: C.B. (2019)

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER PURSUANT TO RULE 1:28

The appellant, C.B., was involuntarily committed to Corrigan Mental Health Center pursuant to G. L. c. 123, §§ 7, 8. C.B. appealed the order to the Appellate Division of the District Court. By the time of the hearing in the appeal, C.B. had been discharged from the facility. The Appellate Division concluded that C.B.'s appeal was moot and dismissed the matter. This appeal followed.

After the decision and order of the Appellate Division entered, the Supreme Judicial Court clarified that appeals from commitment and treatment orders are not rendered moot simply because those orders have expired or terminated. Matter of F.C., 479 Mass. 1029, 1029-1030 (2018). The Appellate Division did not have the benefit of this holding at the time it dismissed C.B.'s appeal. Accordingly, the decision and order of the Appellate Division is vacated, and the matter is remanded for consideration of the underlying merits of C.B.'s appeal.²

So ordered.

Vacated and remanded.

FOOTNOTES

2.   We decline C.B.'s invitation to reach the underlying merits of the appeal without first allowing the Appellate Division to do so.