[nfbmi-talk] another mich suit

[Joe Sontag]

Interesting, if not surprising.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "joe harcz Comcast" <joeharcz at comcast.net>
To: <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 9:36
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] another mich suit


Blind man’s lawsuit challenges state law

List of 2 items

By Jerry Wolffe

For the Daily Tribune

Posted: 05/11/12 07:02 pm

• MOUNT CLEMENS — A Farmington Hills attorney who filed a lawsuit in Macomb 
County Circuit Court against an apartment complex on behalf of a blind man 
who

fell on the ice and broke his ankle said it is a “direct challenge to the 
Michigan Supreme Court doctrine of ‘Open and Obvious.’”

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Attorney Richard Bernstein, who is blind, said the case against Green Valley 
Apartments, Inc., of Clinton Township is not just a “slip and fall” one on

behalf of his client, Darrick Calhoun, 48, who suffered a broken right ankle 
and permanent loss of mobility in the limb when he fell outside the Clinton

Township building.

• The Open and Obvious doctrine states that if, for example, ice on a 
sidewalk, or a hole in a parking lot, cracked cement or a pothole on any 
public property

is large enough then it is obvious and, therefore, an individual is required 
to avoid the danger.

• The court has found that a blind person is held to the exact same standard 
as a person with sight, Bernstein said.

• “How can a blind person see such a dangerous situation?” he added. “This 
interpretation by the Michigan Supreme Court makes Michigan a horribly 
dangerous

place to live for blind people.”

• The case was assigned to Judge Peter Maceroni. The suit is seeking at 
least $25,000 in damages for Calhoun, who was hospitalized for five days 
after the

Jan. 8, 2010, fall outside of the Green Valley Apartments and spent 19 days 
in a rehabilitation center.

• A manager at the apartment complex refused comment Friday regarding the 
property that is owned by Goodman Investments Co. of Royal Oak. A worker at 
Goodman

Investments said the owner “does not wish to comment at this time” on the 
lawsuit.

• Following two surgeries, Calhoun now uses a cane for his blindness with 
one hand and a hip-high cane with the other to help support his body while 
he

walks, he said.

• “I still feel pain,” he said. “My balance is so bad I have to use two 
canes.”

• Bernstein believes it is a precedent-setting case.

• “It’s unbelievable that the Michigan Supreme Court has created a biased 
doctrine like this,” he said. “How can a blind person see ice, a 
construction

site or a hole? Because you were supposed to see it, it eliminates liability 
on the part of the entity that created the potential danger.

• “Someone like Darrick is held to the same standard and that’s 
 nonsensical,” said Bernstein, who fell into a hole on a sidewalk being 
repaired in downtown

Birmingham on Thursday. There was no fencing or anything in the area to 
indicate danger, he said.

• “Birmingham was following what the state Supreme Court had told them to do 
under the “Open and Obvious” doctrine.

• “We have 200 years of common law from our English history that says a 
blind person should be able to go out and about without facing 
life-threatening

danger,” he said. “The Michigan Supreme Court overturned 200 years of 
precedent when it created the ‘Open and Obvious’ legal interpretation.”

• He said his goal is to take the case all the way to the state Supreme 
Court because the law doesn’t make sense for those who are blind or someone 
who

has a disability.

• “The court in the ‘open and obvious’ doctrine has placed blind people at 
risk throughout our state for no reason,” Bernstein said. “(The doctrine) is

saying the more dangerous you make the property, it eliminates all liability 
if someone is injured.”

list end



Source

http://www.dailytribune.com/article/20120511/NEWS01/120519859/blind-man-s-lawsuit-challenges-state-law
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