Long Term Disability Insurance Lawyer Blog
Think a landlord has a duty to fix the electrical wiring in a home.
What about if the tenant repeatedly tells the landlord that the electrical outlet sparks and smokes.
What if the landlord ignores the tenants repeated complaints and there is a fire which results in the death of six children? Think the family should be able to file a lawsuit?
Not in Michigan. Not anymore.
Why not? Because Cliff Taylor says so, that’s why.
In the case of McDowell v City of Detroit, Taylor’s court threw the family of six dead children out of court by finding that the landlord had no duty to fix the electrical system even though the family had repeatedly complained about sparks and smoke coming from the outlet. Defendants were on actual notice of the problems with the electrical outlet that eventually caught fire and other electrical components of the home as evidenced by nearly two years’ worth of complaints made by the tenant to defendants.
Taylor simply chose to ignore the lease and the law which respectively required that the landlord
Maintain electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating and other facilities and appliances, supplied or required to be supplied by Management in good and safe working order and condition.
Likewise, the law- MCL 125.471
requires that “[e]very dwelling and all the parts thereof including plumbing, heating,
ventilating and electrical wiring shall be kept in good repair by the owner.”
So even though the law and the lease clearly required the landlord to fix the wiring. Even though the family could not, by law, fix the wiring, Cliff Taylor lets the landlord off scott free.
If you think this kind of judicial activism is wrong, vote to restore fairness by voting for Judge Hathaway for the Michigan Supreme Court on the nonpartisan section of the ballot this November. Remember, you have not cast a vote for the supreme court until you check the box next to Judge Hathaway’s name.