Action under 42 USC § 1983 alleging violation of a pretrial detainee’s Fourteenth Amendment right to adequate medical care; Qualified immunity; Jurisdiction; Gross negligence claim under Michigan law; Governmental immunity; MCL 691.1407; “The proximate cause”; Robinson v City of Detroit (MI); Burwell v City of Lansing

[This appeal was from the ED-MI.] The court held that it lacked jurisdiction over defendant-Green-Hernandez’s assertion of qualified immunity on plaintiff-Gillman’s Fourteenth Amendment claim for failure to provide a pretrial detainee (Miller) with adequate medical care. But it found that it did have jurisdiction over Green-Hernandez’s claim to governmental immunity as to plaintiff’s Michigan gross negligence claim, and it concluded the record showed that her “conduct was not the single most direct cause of Miller’s injuries.” Miller was arrested and booked into defendant-City of Troy’s pretrial detention facility. She “informed facility staff that she had been heavily using heroin and expected to go into withdrawal in about a day.” She did so, but in spite of her constant vomiting, no one at the jail sought medical care for her, including “Green Hernandez, one of the employees responsible for monitoring the City’s pretrial detainees on the day of Miller’s death.” Plaintiff, Miller’s husband, sued for failure to provide medical care under the Fourteenth Amendment and for gross negligence under Michigan law. Green-Hernandez moved for summary judgment based on qualified immunity as to the Fourteenth Amendment claim and governmental immunity as to the state-law claim. The district court denied the motion in both respects. On appeal, the court first considered her qualified immunity defense. “Green-Hernandez’s arguments on appeal fail to construe the record in the light most favorable to Gillman, and she has failed to adequately concede the material facts, as she must to invoke our jurisdiction.” Thus, her claim for qualified immunity was based on “critical factual disputes,” and as a result, the court dismissed that part of her appeal for lack of jurisdiction. But it held that it had jurisdiction over her claim for governmental immunity under Michigan law on the pendent state law gross negligence claim. It found that the record established a dispute of material fact whether her failure to seek medical care for Miller evinced “a ‘substantial lack of concern’ for” her condition. However, the court held that “a reasonable jury could not conclude that the single most proximate cause of Miller’s death was Green-Hernandez’s failure to seek medical care in response to Miller’s vomiting. Rather, the single most proximate cause of Miller’s death was her ingestion of fentanyl.” Thus, it reversed “the district court’s denial of Michigan governmental immunity, and” remanded.