Appellate court reverses summary disposition granted to Judge on his duty disability claim.

Gerard Trudel appealed after his duty disability claim ws denied by the City of Allen Park.  Although Trudel was deemed to be disabled, the City and its Retirement Board concluded that his disability did not result from his employment duties.  He sought a FOIA-aided investigation and also hounded the defendants through discovery.  In the Circuit Court, the sitting judge denied him discovery relief and further FOIA investigation but granted him summary disposition on the disabilty claim.

The Appellate Court ruled that since Trudel had already filed 350 discovery requests, it was not inapproriate for the lower court to limit him to 50 discovery requests when he complained about the accuracy and completeness of the Defendants' responses.  The Court also ruled that it was not inappropriate for the lower court to take into consideration an affidavit that was not timely filed in response to the judge's motion for FOIA relief:  the appellate judges concluded that it was within the court's discretion to consider the affidavit, even though it was filed only one business day before the subject hearing.

In the third related appeal, the higher court reversed the lower court's summary disposition in favor of the Judge on his duty disability claim.  The Court sent the case back to the trial judge emphasizing a number of factual issues that had not been determined.  The disabled man should have known he would lose the appeal when the panel of judges was identified and included Kirsten F. Kelly and a couple of other insurer-friendly Republicans:  Kely never votes for a plaintiff--unless its an insurer.