Late Monday, a federal judge in Ann Arbor, Mich., ruled that residents may continue with their lawsuit against the City of Flint and top state water officials in Michigan over allegations they violated the residents’ “bodily integrity” by exposing them to lead-contaminated water and failing to to disclose the contamination right away.
U.S. District Judge Judith E. Levy issued a 101-page opinion saying Flint residents Sheri Guertin, her minor child and Diogenes Muse-Cleveland can move forward with their lawsuit that names the City of Flint; its former emergency managers Darnell Earley and Jerry Ambrose; former Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Howard Croft; and eight former state Department of Environmental Quality employees as defendants, MLive reports.
While Levy ruled that the claim could move forward because the plaintiffs were able to show that “the conduct of many of the individual governmental defendants was so egregious as to shock the conscience and violate plaintiffs’ clearly established fundamental right to bodily integrity …,” she dismissed their claims against Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, former state DEQ official Patrick Cook and former Flint water official Michael Glasgow, saying the claims failed to directly connect them to the lead-in-water poisoning.
Levy also dismissed 12 other counts in the case, including due process, breach of contract and negligence claims.
Read more at MLive.
