GWINN (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned a decision and reinstated a lawsuit by the family of a four-year-old girl who was accidentally killed at an Upper Peninsula school in 2015.
Civil immunity can apply to schools under personal-injury law. But the Supreme Court, in a 4-3 order, said there still are questions of fact about the incident to be sorted out in Marquette County court.
Amarah Filizetti, the daughter of a cheerleading coach, died when a 325-pound panel fell on her at Gwinn High School. Staff were in the process of putting the panel in place to shield a portable stage in the gym.
The Court of Appeals had ruled in Gwinn's favor and dismissed the lawsuit, saying the panel wasn't part of a building defect. But the Supreme Court disagreed.
“When the panel fell, it had been leaned at an angle against a gym wall, instead of being secured to the wall and floor, as was its original and normal state,” the court said in its ruling handed down last week. “A reasonable jury could conclude that this constituted a 'dangerous or defective condition.'”
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