US District courts dismiss remaining Federal lawsuits over Flint water poisoning
By
Matthew Brennan
14 February 2017
Over the past 10 days, four key lawsuits filed by Flint, Michigan, residents against Governor Rick Snyder and other state officials were dismissed by a US District Court judge. All four claims accused leading state officials of being responsible for poisoning the city’s water supply. All were rejected by US District Judge John Corbett O’Meara on technical grounds. O’Meara has now dismissed at least 60 lawsuits related to the massive health crisis that ensued after state officials switched the city’s water source to the notoriously polluted Flint River.
Two of the lawsuits—filed by Flint residents Luke Waid and Myia McMillian—were dismissed last Tuesday on grounds that they did not fall under federal jurisdiction, due to a 60-day filing limit provision in the Safe Water and Drinking Act (SWDA). Waid filed his suit in February 2016 on behalf of his two-year-old daughter, who tested positive for high levels of lead and evidence of lead-related illness.
Filing under the SWDA, Waid sought compensation for past and future medical care, and for as-yet-unknown developmental damage his daughter is likely to have suffered between 2015 and 2016. Young children under the age of six are the most vulnerable to the toxic and irreversible effects of exposure to lead. Up to 9,000 Flint children may have been affected thus far by the lead-in-water crisis.
Class-action lawsuits filed by McMillian and another by Melissa Mays were launched on behalf of tens of thousands of Flint residents. Mays’s lawsuit—which was rejected a week earlier by O’Meara on similar jurisdiction grounds—targeted 14 leading officials, including Snyder, emergency managers Darnell…