## Facts

- Richard Haas, adjudicated incompetent, was confined at Lincoln State School under the Department of Public Welfare’s control beginning August 28, 1949.
- The Department sued Richard’s father, Edward C. Haas, in the County Court of Cook County to collect maintenance charges for January 1952 through October 1954.
- The Department alleged Richard could not pay and had no estate sufficient to defray charges; it sought $60 per month (a per capita cost set by the Department), totaling $2,040 plus costs, under provisions of the Illinois Mental Health Code.
- Haas appeared, demanded a jury, denied liability, and asserted state and federal constitutional objections.
- The Department moved for summary judgment supported by affidavit; Haas moved to strike and filed counter-affidavits.
- The county court denied Haas’s motion to strike and entered summary judgment for the Department for $2,040 plus costs.
- Haas took a direct appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, raising jurisdictional and constitutional challenges.

## Issues

1. Whether the county court had statutory and constitutional authority to enter judgment for institutional maintenance charges exceeding $2,000.
2. Whether the Mental Health Code’s imposition of parental liability for an incompetent child’s institutional maintenance violates the Illinois Constitution’s free-schools provision or federal/state due process and equal protection guarantees.
3. Whether a defendant who did not use the Code’s administrative procedures to contest assessed charges may later dispute the amount or propriety of those charges in the collection action.

## Decision

- The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the county court’s judgment for the Department.
- The court held the Mental Health Code validly conferred jurisdiction on the county court to enforce maintenance charges, notwithstanding the amount in controversy.
- The court rejected the constitutional attacks, including the argument that charges were barred by the Illinois constitutional requirement of free public education.
- The court held due process was satisfied by the Code’s administrative procedures for fixing and contesting charges; Haas’s failure to pursue those procedures left no triable factual dispute, making summary judgment proper.

## Legal Principles

- The legislature may, by general law, confer on a county court jurisdiction to hear statutory actions to collect state-institution maintenance charges even when the amount exceeds ordinary monetary limits.
- A state institution providing custodial care and treatment for incompetent persons is not part of the common school system; charging relatives for maintenance in such an institution does not violate constitutional guarantees of free public schooling.
- Statutory schemes making specified close relatives (including parents) liable for maintenance when the patient and the patient’s estate cannot pay are constitutionally permissible when grounded in family-support obligations and reasonable classification.
- When an administrative mechanism exists to set and challenge maintenance assessments, failure to invoke that process forecloses later factual challenges to the assessment in the collection suit and can justify summary judgment.

## Conclusion

The court upheld statutory parental responsibility for an incompetent child’s maintenance in a state institution, confirmed county-court jurisdiction to collect assessed charges above $2,000, and ruled that constitutional objections and factual disputes over the assessment were unavailable where the defendant did not pursue the prescribed administrative review process.


Dep’t of Pub. Welfare v. Haas, 15 Ill. 2d 204 (Ill. 1958)