Opinion
No. 133854.
November 2, 2007.
Court of Appeals No. 271406.
Leave to Appeal Denied November 2, 2007:
I would grant leave to appeal.
The Court denies leave to appeal in yet another case of inmate suicide. Once again, it declines to resolve the open question whether it is relevant to consider the foreseeability of such a suicide when determining proximate cause. In this case, a jail employee removed Mr. Perez from a suicide watch despite her knowledge that he had recently tried to kill himself while in the jail's custodial care. This Court should put to rest the question whether, in so doing, the employee committed gross negligence that was the proximate cause of the inmate's death.
See the recent order denying leave to appeal in Cooper v Washtenaw Co, 477 Mich 953 (2006).
See Robinson v Detroit, 462 Mich 439, 462 (2000).
This Court has acknowledged that a custodial relationship is a special relationship that gives rise to a duty to protect an inmate from harm, including self-inflicted harm. In an inmate-suicide case, is that duty not meaningless if the failure to protect the inmate from himself can never be the proximate cause of his death? This question should not remain unanswered.
Hickey v Zezulka (On Resubmission), 439 Mich 408, 438 (1992).