Elizabeth's Case

The Human Face Project shares the stories of the people who came to the Court seeking justice -- and were denied. The decisions of the Taylor Court in these cases not only left the people before the Court without a remedy, but they have let cities, employers, business owners and polluters know that they can get away with a lower standard of care for their citizens, employees and customers and those who love Michigan's natural beauty. These stories could have ended differently if an independent, fair minded justice was in Taylor's seat on the Court.

Clifford Taylor’s Court Takes Decision Making Out of Hands of Citizen Juries.

Woman Injures Hip Due To Funeral Home’s Failure To Clear Snow From Its Parking Lot. Taylor Denies Her Day In Court

Elizabeth Kenny and three co-workers attended a funeral for a friend in Richmond, a town of about 5,000 in northern Macomb County. The funeral was on a cold wintery Michigan day – one where ice and snow collected on sidewalks and parking lots.

Ms. Kenny and her friends pulled into the parking lot at a local funeral home. Ms. Kenny noticed her co-workers holding on to the car for balance when they stepped onto the parking lot, which was covered with about one inch of ice.

Despite the efforts of Ms. Kenny and her friends to stay upright, they slipped and fell on the black ice. Elizabeth Kenny severely injured her hip. She has suffered for years with pain that keeps her from getting a good night’s sleep. Eventually, she had to suffer hip replacement surgery.

Ms. Kenny sued the funeral home because the funeral home, which had invited families and friends to gather and mourn, acted unreasonably in failing to keep its parking lot free from hazards. Her action was brought under “tort” law. “Tort” is the area of law that deals with remedies for injuries caused by one person to another.

In cases involving torts on real property, such as the parking lot adjacent to a business, for over a hundred years, a jury has determined whether the landowner or business maintained the premises in a reasonably safe condition or took reasonable steps to prevent hazards to patrons.

The trial court, however, dismissed Ms. Kenny’s case. The judge decided that the black ice was “open and obvious” and refused to send the case to the jury.

Ms. Kenny appealed her case. Three Michigan Court of Appeals Judges found that it was improper for the judge to deny a jury trial. It ruled a jury should decide whether the presence of black ice under the snow would have been plainly obvious to a reasonable person.

Now it was the funeral home’s turn to appeal the case. The Michigan Supreme Court, in an abbreviated and unappealable decision, ruled that Ms. Kenny did not deserve a jury trial. The Supreme Court was simply following its new rule that it had created to protect businesses in 2001 that a judge can dismiss a tort case if the judge thinks that the dangerousness of condition would have been apparent to a pedestrian -- rather than trusting a jury of pedestrians, business owners and other citizens with that decision. Lugo v. Corp, Inc, 464 Mich 512, 516-517 (2001).

Justice Taylor and his Michigan Supreme Court majority has affirmed their new rule that a judge can properly deny a jury trial in a tort case involving on injury on real property -- even where the plaintiff is blind! Justice Taylor outrageously stated that he believes that a customer’s blindness is “immaterial as to whether an open and obvious condition is unreasonably dangerous.” Sidorowicz v. Chicken Shack, Inc., 469 Mich. 919; 673 N.W.2d 106 (2003). The effect of such a ruling is that landowners and businesses, when inviting the public onto business premises, are no longer required to take into account the likely impairments or disabilities of certain customers.

If this happens to you or a member of your family, Clifford Taylor will deny you a remedy and your day in court.