DETROIT (Legal Newsline) – A boy whose finger was caught in the door of his first-grade classroom and was severed will get to sue his teacher unless she can prove she didn't shut the door in frustration.
Camilla Barnes and her son have sued Detroit Public School District and Terri Smith in Wayne Circuit Court over a 2017 incident that cost him part of one of his fingers. The Michigan Court of Appeals on Oct. 8 ruled the trial court was right to deny Smith the defense of governmental immunity.
“Properly reviewing the facts in the context of a motion for summary disposition, this Court must view the facts as JB told plaintiff at Henry Ford Hospital the day his finger was injured—i.e., that defendant intentionally closed the door on JB’s finger because she was angry with him,” the ruling says.
“If defendant intentionally closed the door on JB’s finger then she did not act in good faith because such an action showed either an intent to harm or complete indifference to whether JB would be harmed by her actions.”
According the ruling, J.B. was told to leave the classroom and go to the school’s main office because he was being disruptive. Smith walked him to the door, then began to close it when she thought J.B. was through.
J.B., instead, was trying to get back in the classroom. Another teacher says J.B. lunged toward the door, and the tip of his left middle finger was caught between the door and the frame near its hinges.
“When the door closed, the tip of JB’s left middle finger was completely severed,” the ruling says.
Smith took him to the school nurse, where he stayed until his mother arrived to take him to the hospital. Doctors were unable to reattach the tip.
Smith will not be entitled to immunity if it is found that she intentionally closed the door on J.B., the ruling says. It will be up to the trial court to sort that issue out.