Three personal injury claims today: three victims' cases' summarily dismissed

Today Michigan's Court of Appeals handed down three decisions in Court of Appeals cases.  The Court ruled in favor of granting summary disposition to the defendant in all three cases.  In a medical malpractice case, the Court ruled that a Jehovah's Witness family could not sue a dead woman's doctor for his alleged negligence because she could have been saved through the administration of blood products.  It ruled that the jury could not take into account her religious beliefs in deciding what a "reasonable person" would do.

In a premises liability case, the Court held that an injured woman could not sue a restaurant after falling on its slippery floor.  The Court held that since the woman knew on casual inspection that the floor was slippery, it didn't matter whether the condition was apparent to all observers and the restaurant owed no duty to address the hazard.  It also held that since the injured woman could have left immediately after seeing that the floor was slippery--or demanded that it be remedied, none of the exceptions to the "open and obvious danger" exception to premises liability should be applied.  The restaurant was relieved of its duty to keep a reasonably safe commercial property.

Lastly, the Court upheld the dismisal of a claim filed by a woman struck by a car while on a motorcycle.  The woman's attorneys had not filed pre-trial papers because the attorneys thought they were entirely redundant to the paperwork the attorneys had filed in the PIP action against the same insurer.  The Court held that it didn't matter that the Defendants had the sought-after information, it was within the Court's discretion to dismiss the case where the injured woman's attorneys had not filed documents confirming their plans in the instant litigation.

None of the injury victims will have their "day in court" or their constitutionally-guaranteed trial by jury.