307 Ga. App. 452 - Bruscato v. O'BRIEN’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “O’Brien began treating Victor Bruscato, a then 38-year-old, mentally ill patient with a history of violence, in January 2001. O’Brien reviewed Bruscato’s treatment records, which revealed that Bruscato’s mental illness manifested in childhood and that he had been diagnosed over the course of his life with mental retardation, organic mood disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, schizophrenia, a nonspecified psychotic disorder, pedophilia, and intermittent explosive disorder. Bruscato had expressed homicidal thoughts toward his parents, and he had physically assaulted them and others, including a hospital employee and a young girl. He had also experienced auditory hallucinations that commanded him to kill people or to molest girls. When O’Brien began treating Bruscato, Bruscato had been living with his parents for almost two years. Before that, he had been living in a group home operated by the Gwinnett-Rockdale-Newton Community Service Board (“CSB”), but he had been removed from the home because of the risk that he might sexually assault a girl. Bruscato’s expert witness opined that his elderly parents were ill-equipped to manage a severely mentally-ill adult and were “strong-armed” into taking him home. While at home, Bruscato continued receiving outpatient treatment from the CSB. Bruscato’s expert witness opined that the medications the CSB staff administered to Bruscato controlled his violent behavior and sexual impulses. O’Brien knew that, because Bruscato was potentia”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. O'BRIEN v. Bruscato

2. “[A] patient’s psychiatric disorder may prevent him from having the mental capacity to exercise control over his intentional behavior or, at least, from exercising a reasonable degree of care in order to prevent himself from harming others.... [T]he fact that a patient’s illegal act was volitional does not necessarily mean that it was a rational act for which the patient alone was responsible or which relieved . . . the hospital [or mental health care provider] of its duty to the patient.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. HOWELL Et Al. v. NORMAL LIFE OF GEORGIA, INC. Et Al.; And Vice Versa

3. “[B]ecause no court has entered a judgment finding Bruscato legally responsible for his mother’s murder and because the issue of his mental competence at the time of the crime has been disputed, a jury issue exists as to whether Bruscato had the requisite mental capacity to commit murder.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. O'BRIEN v. Bruscato