Court of Appeals: Negligence Claims Can’t Be Constitutionalized

In Fratarcangeli v. Myers, et al., Plaintiff, a 64-year-old man, was detained in Oakland County Jail for 11 hours after driving erratically. He alleged that during incarceration, jail deputies failed to provide him with proper medication, food or water, despite his telling them he was diabetic.

Our clients, Philip Durocher, MD, and Danielle Veatch, LPN, are medical personnel with Wellpath, who is contracted to provide medical services at the Oakland County Jail. Durocher gave the oral order via telephone to treat Plaintiff’s diabetes with insulin and to check his blood sugar. Veatch, the jail nurse, administered the insulin.

Plaintiff argued Durocher and Veatch gave him diabetes medication he was not accustomed to taking, and that medical personnel knew or should have known that the medication they administered needed to be ingested with food. Plaintiff alleges that he was not provided with food or water. Ms. Suleiman filed a motion for summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(8), arguing that the factual allegations made by Plaintiff were clearly unenforceable as a matter of law and no factual development could justify recovery.

However, the lower court ruled that “genuine issues of material fact” existed “from which the inference could be drawn that substantial risk of serious harm existed[ed] and the Defendants ignored that risk,” thus subjecting Plaintiff to cruel and unusual punishment under 42 USC § 1983.

The Oakland County Co-Defendants filed a claim of appeal by right, to which Plaintiff filed his cross appeal, which included claims against Durocher and Veatch. By way of Plaintiff’s cross appeal, Ms. Suleiman was able to file a further cross appeal arguing that the lower court had erred in not granting her Motion for Summary Disposition in full.