Supreme Court majority overturns lower court, granting summary disposition based on immunity

This week the Michigan Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeals and summarily dismissed a claim brought by a teen-aged snowmobiler who collided with an unlit pier and was rendered a quadriplegic.  The boy's Next Friend/Guardian argued that the governmental employees who were responsible for maintaining the lighting on the pier were guilty of gross negligence.  The high court pointed out that the pier maintenance records showed that pier lights were illuminated twenty minutes before the incident, and therefore the boy's guardians could not show that the governmental actors were guilty of gross negligence or "conduct so reckless as to demonstrate a substantial lack of concern for whether an injury results."