Order Michigan Supreme Court
Lansing, Michigan
November 2, 2007 Clifford W. Taylor,
Chief Justice
133854 Michael F. Cavanagh
Elizabeth A. Weaver
Marilyn Kelly
ARIEL PEREZ, SR., Personal Representative Maura D. Corrigan
of the Estate of ARIEL E. PEREZ, JR., Robert P. Young, Jr.
Deceased, Stephen J. Markman,
Justices
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v SC: 133854
COA: 271406
Oakland CC: 2005-065925-NM
OAKLAND COUNTY and ROBERTA RICE,
Defendants-Appellees,
and
DR. SARATH HEMACHANDRA,
Defendant.
_________________________________________/
On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the March 27, 2007
judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not
persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court.
CAVANAGH, J., would grant leave to appeal.
KELLY, J., dissents and states as follows:
The Court denies leave to appeal in yet another case of inmate suicide.1 Once
again, it declines to resolve the open question whether it is relevant to consider the
foreseeability of such a suicide when determining proximate cause. In this case, a jail
employee removed Mr. Perez from a suicide watch despite her knowledge that he had
recently tried to kill himself while in the jail’s custodial care. This Court should put to
rest the question whether, in so doing, the employee committed gross negligence that was
the proximate cause of the inmate’s death.2
1
See the recent order denying leave to appeal in Cooper v Washtenaw Co, 477 Mich
953 (2006).
2
See Robinson v Detroit, 462 Mich 439, 462 (2000).
2
This Court has acknowledged that a custodial relationship is a special relationship
that gives rise to a duty to protect an inmate from harm, including self-inflicted harm.3 In
an inmate-suicide case, is that duty not meaningless if the failure to protect the inmate
from himself can never be the proximate cause of his death? This question should not
remain unanswered.
3
Hickey v Zezulka (On Resubmission), 439 Mich 408, 438 (1992).
I, Corbin R. Davis, Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court, certify that the
foregoing is a true and complete copy of the order entered at the direction of the Court.
November 2, 2007 _________________________________________
d1030 Clerk