Michigan Injury Lawyers Blog

Another icy Michigan night - another automobile accident-related death.

Caitlin Baker of Ada, age 19, was killed Wednesday night while driving along M-21, near Lowell. Reportedly, a car traveling the same road - in the other direction - crossed into the opposite lane of traffic and collided with Ms. Baker's vehicle.

Details are sketchy, but an unnamed police source hints that the fatal crash may have been alcohol related.

The bigger story, however, may include one of Michigan's best kept secrets. An anonymous source in the County Road Commission informs us that the real culprit may be Michigan's economic woes. According to our source, roadway de-icing is down or curtailed all over the state, due to budgetary shortfalls.

Which raises the question of whether the Baker family may have an automobile negligence claim against the Road Commission for failure to safely maintain the roadway in question.

Make no mistake about it, a claim like that is a steep mountain to climb, indeed. Those claims are fraught with pitfalls, such as short notice requirements and built in, armor plated legal defenses.

The general rule is that the county road commission is responsible for maintaining "the improved portion of the highway designed for vehicular travel". Yet, in plowing the roads, the road commission is not liable for imperfect or even negligent removal of natural accumulations of ice and snow.

The defense is called the Doctrine of Governmental immunity. The Legislature in Lansing enacted that law to insulate the government from the claims of injury victims.

The Doctrine, however, is not bullet proof. Exceptions exist. For example, our Courts have held that an injury victim may have a claim where the responsible governmental body actually caused an unnatural, exceptionally dangerous accumulation of ice and snow - of a different character from normal or pre-existing conditions.

As always, the outcome will turn on the specific and unique facts of the case. And it is at that investigatory juncture where the skills of an experienced Grand Rapids area personal injury lawyer become indispensable.

Details Show Caitlin Baker, 19, Was Eastbound On M-21, But Fault Still Undetermined In Fatal Crash, The Grand Rapids Press, December 17, 2010

On the hierarchy of despicable acts, sucker-punching a nearly 70 year old man in the face ranks pretty close to the top of the list, especially when the slugger is a 20 year old boy.

But if the punch was so forceful that it broke the old gentleman's dentures - that's Hall of Fame level.

The facts of this case are simple enough. Hapless Paul Cannon walked in to his local Detroit area Burger King restaurant to place an order. Instead of a Whopper, however, he was handed a wallop, complements of a Burger King employee.

Back at Burger King Company headquarters, no doubt, corporate lawyers are scrambling to shift blame, avoid responsibility and cover their assets. And in this case, they won't have far to look for a way out.

Under Michigan law, an employee's negligent or intentionally wrongful conduct is attributable to the employer only under certain narrow circumstances. Thus, the injury victim must prove that the employee acted in the course of his employment, within the scope of his employment, at the direction of his employer and pursuant to the employer's control. Acts which do not arise out of job related functions (such as randomly punching people in the face) are outside of the scope of the employment. Unless you are a professional boxer, that is.

Burger King Company's insurance carrier is also no doubt dancing an Irish jig. That is because most liability insurance policies contain a clause excluding coverage for intentional acts, such as assault and battery.

A game changer, however, may lie in evidence showing that the employer knew or should have known that the the assaultive employee was prone to unpredictable and uncontrollable bouts of irrational, violent rage. Upon an evidentiary foundation like that, transforming a seemingly intentional act by the employee into a negligence claim against the employer, becomes a possibility. Certainly, the applicable insurance policy covers negligence.

And it is at those investigative crossroads where the skills of an experienced Detroit personal injury lawyer become indispensable.

Burger King Wallop Leads to Elderly Man's Death,
Detroit Free Press, December 10, 2010

Enjoy the music and the video - "Cars - the Winter Olympics" and LEARN, friends!

The first snow of the year that I saw in Michigan's lower peninsula was two days ago, on December first. And within just minutes of observing the meager, almost microscopic flakes accumulating on the windshield of my car - sure enough, I was nearly T-boned by an out of control, whirling 4 by 4!

Born and bred in tropical south Florida - and never having even seen snow until I first visited Michigan in my twenties - it never ceases to amaze me! Every winter, without fail, natural born Michiganders, from Detroit, to Traverse City to Grand Rapids, and all points in between - are slipping, sliding, doing donuts and pirouettes as soon as the slightest dusting of winter snow hits the streets - and in their beloved SUVs, no less!

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to embarrass my Michigander brethren, but, truth be told - Michigan's treacherous winter road conditions have never even phased this Florida boy. No, the RLG Firm didn't send me to one of those high-priced defensive driving courses. I've developed my own 'secret weapon'. I call it SLOW DOWN.

So, it's no wonder that the Montcalm County Sheriff's Department has had it's hands full for the last few days. The first automobile accident happened when Shawn Patrick Cramer, 42, of Belding, lost control and slid into another vehicle driven by Bobby Jo Wellman, 24, also of Belding. Ms. Wellman was injured in the crash and transported to the hospital.

Cramer's 5 year old daughter was riding as a passenger in has car and may also have been injured in the crash.

Clearly, Ms. Wellman has a claim for compensation if the other driver caused the accident. What many find surprising is that, if Mr. Cramer's daughter was injured in the accident, Mr. Cramer's insurance carrier may be obligated to pay money damages to the child - even if her father is responsible for her injuries. That is a revelation to many accident victims because, in the past, a legal principle called "family immunity" barred negligence claims by one family member against another. So, the myth persists. Fortunately, that doctrine has been abolished.

Next, Sheriff's Deputies were rushing to the scene of yet another automobile accident. That collision happened when Kay Elizabeth Brown, 47, of Belding, lost control, crossed the center line and collided with a car driven by Susan Diane Palumbo, 46, of Greenville. Palumbo was hospitalized for serious injuries.

Meanwhile, back at insurance company headquarters, insurance lawyers are feverishly sorting through reams of appellate court and supreme court decisions - looking for ways to deny the accident victim's claims.

The stock defense in cases like these, of course, is the "Act of God" principle. And we don't mean the kind they teach us in Sunday school.

Every negligence claim requires proof that the person accused of causing the accident either did something incorrectly or failed to do something that was required. If the event which caused the accident was a 'freak of nature', rather than a personal lapse, however, then one of the components of the negligence claim may be absent. And the law says that if even one element of the claim is absent, the entire claim must fail.

These days, insurance defense lawyers prefer to call the defense the "Sudden Emergency Doctrine" - apparently because the term 'Act of God' suggests an event completely beyond human control. That's a steep mountain to climb in a case like this - where a Michigan driver slid on a snowy road, because it just might occur to a judge or jury that, perhaps the negligent driver could have and should have SLOWED DOWN.

'Sudden emergency' is more forgiving, and therefore more helpful to the insurance defense lawyer, in that the phrase seems to imply that, though the negligent driver may have had some control, changing conditions are largely to blame.

The key for the personal injury lawyer is to keep the jury's eye on the ball - by focusing on the law: This is Michigan. It's winter. Snow and ice are more than foreseeable - those conditions are virtually guaranteed. Every driver must adjust his driving to the prevailing whether, traffic and road conditions. Failure to do so is negligence - plain and simple.

Enjoy the video - "Cars - the Winter Olympics".

Icy conditions lead to multiple accidents in Montcalm County, Sentinal-Standard, December 3, 2010

Today, yet another family is shattered after yet another Michigan road worker was killed at yet another work site by yet another negligent driver. This time, the victim is Gerald Hykras of Laurium. The scene of the accident was Houghton - in Michigan's upper peninsula.

All of which which raises the question: How many have to sacrifice their lives before Michigan gets serious about protecting our road crews?

The fact that Mr. Hykras was doing that type of work at age 61 tells us something about his circumstances. Road work is a young man's job. The work is physically taxing, it's mentally punishing, it's grim and it's dangerous.

If the accident victim's dependents were living at all close to the economic edge, their world just got a whole lot scarier. Especially if they are under the misconception that meager Worker's Compensation benefits are their only financial salvation.

Though they probably won't hear it from the insurance company - the truth of the matter is quite the contrary. If the tragedy was caused by a company, entity or person who was not in league with Mr. Hykras' employer, the Hykras family may be in line millions of dollars in compensation.

Those are questions that can only be answered by a thorough investigation - overseen by an experienced personal injury lawyer. One thing is certain - the potential defendants surely won't welcome our investigators with open arms. They never do. In fact, it is at this very juncture where the evidence begins to disappear.

We can only hope that the Hykras family will recognize that time is of the essence - and will take steps to protect their rights.

1 Man killed, another injured in Houghton crash, The Chicago Tribune, December 1, 2010