Court moves case to Oakland County because victim's family's claim that stroke began more than one hour ago is "speculative."

In Mortiere v. Henry Ford Health System, et al., the family of a woman who died of a stroke attempted to sue Henry Ford in Wayne County where the woman was seen in the Henry Ford ER.  The family argued that the decedent should not have been released home, given lab tests that showed an elevated risk of developing blood clots and stroke.  She in fact suffered a stroke with an hour of arriving home in Oakland County.

The Wayne County Circuit Court rejected the Henry Ford attorneys' argument that the case properly belonged in Oakland County, as the county where the alleged injury was suffered.  Henry Ford appealed and the Court of Appeals reversed.  It rejected the medical literature supplied by the family's attorneys which supported the claim that the clot and stroke suffered by Claudette Mortiere probably developed while she was still in Wayne County.  It ruled that arguments the clot most likely started in Wayne County were "speculative," and that since symptoms were first observed in Oakland County, the case must be moved to Oakland County.