Michigan Supreme Court rejects appeal in MSU dorm fall
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court has turned down an appeal in a lawsuit filed by a young woman who fell six floors to the ground after a window collapsed at a residence hall at Michigan State University.
The court let stand a decision that grants immunity to Michigan State. The order was released Thursday.
Alexandra Pew was 18 in 2012 when she leaned against a window at Case Hall and fell six floors, shattering bones and suffering lifelong injuries. She was a high school student visiting friends.
Public agencies have a duty to maintain buildings, and Pew was allowed to be at Case Hall. But the Michigan appeals court last year said Michigan State has immunity because the dorm wasn’t open to the general public at the hour Pew was injured.
Wayne Law student wins HM in national writing competition
Erica Shell, who graduated from Wayne State University Law School on Monday, May 18, has been awarded an honorable mention in a national environmental law writing competition.
Shell’s entry in the Environmental Law Institute’s 2014-15 Beveridge & Diamond Constitutional Environmental Law Writing Competition was “The Final Auer: Constitutional Challenges to a Fundamental Principle of Administrative Law.” Her article, one of the top three in the contest, will be published in an upcoming edition of Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis.
A Birmingham resident, Shell has been hired to work at Bodman PLC where she worked as a legal clerk and as a summer associate in 2014-15. She also worked as a legal assistant for the River Rouge City Attorney Office.
In law school, she particularly enjoyed working in the Transnational Environmental Law Clinic.
“I had a great opportunity to work closely with Professor (Nick) Schroeck on real legal issues impacting the Detroit community,” she said. “I have also greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work one on one with Professors (Noah) Hall and Schroeck on drafting articles, such as this one.”
Hall is a founder of the clinic and of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit environmental organization that provides legal assistance to community organizations; environmental non-governmental organizations; and local, state and regional governments. Schroeck, a Wayne Law alumnus, is director of the clinic and executive director of the environmental law center.
Shell was part of the National Environmental Law Moot Court Team that in February took home the Best Brief award in the annual Jeffrey G. Miller Pace National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, where she was named best oralist twice, once for each time she argued.
Shell graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s degree in cultural studies and earned a master’s degree from the University of Detroit Mercy in community development before she began law school.
Shell was managing editor of The Journal of Law in Society at Wayne Law and served as an intern for Wayne Law alumna U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds, Eastern District of Michigan, in 2013.
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