Date set for Fieger lawsuit

ADRIAN, MI. - A lawsuit against Lenawee County and Maurice Spear Campus staff over a 16-year-old boy's death was scheduled for trial next year after a hearing Monday in Lenawee County Circuit Court.

A suit filed by Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger for the boy's family claims the county government and staff members at the campus were negligent in the care of resident Benito James Myers.

The boy died at the University of Michigan's Mott Children's Hospital on Jan. 7, 2000, two days after he was sent there from Maurice Spear Campus.

According to the suit filed in April, Myers had a history of suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, that weakened his immune system.

He became ill a month after he was lodged by court order at the campus on Oct. 21, 1999.

A summary of the case filed by Fieger's office on June 22 said Myers was ill with flu-like symptoms for two weeks at the campus and had coughed up blood.

"By the time he was finally given medical attention, he was virtually dead from congestive heart failure, from which he died the following day," Fieger stated.

An attorney representing the county government denied any wrongdoing by campus staff members and claimed governmental immunity for the county and its employees.

Defense attorney Dale Gudenau of Southfield also filed a notice of non-party liability in May, naming Adrian physician Dr. Josefina Samson, U-M Hospital and Bixby Medical Center.

According to the family's lawsuit, Benito Myers was diagnosed and treated for bronchitis by Samson on Dec. 29, 1999. She had him transferred to the U-M after seeing him again on Jan. 5, 2000, the complaint said.

The suit claimed his mother, M. Sue Myers, had requested since Dec. 30 that he be transferred to the hospital.

At the first hearing on the suit Monday, Judge Harvey A. Koselka gave attorneys until June 18 next year to finish interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence.

A five-day jury trial was scheduled to begin Dec. 10, 2002.