The Hartley case has been dismissed after forty years of litigation and negotiations. The case was originally filed to address mental health patients’ rights to humane conditions and treatments. The state Department of Health and Human Resources said the original lawsuit was filed in 1981 and has been under the purview of several judges, with the last being Judge Louis E. “Duke” Bloom dismissing the case. The DHHR said the dismissal order obligates the state agency to continue funding community-based mental health services and the independent patient advocates inside the two hospitals.