Dispute over adequacy of governmental notice results in split opinion by Court of Appeals

Kyle Speelman sued the City of Lansing, arguing that a very dangerous pothole on Mount Hope Avenue caused him to lose control of his motorcycle and suffer serious injury.  He complied with the very specific highway defect notice in the governmental immunity statute, however, he mistakenly reported in one line of the notice that the pothole was in an "eastbound" lane, when it was in fact in the west bound lane.

The Court of Appeals pointed to the fact that pictures depicting the pothole clearly depicted its "exact location" in the westbound lane and did not dismiss the lawsuit based on failure to comply with the statutory notice requirement.  Dissenting judge Riordan would have ruled that despite the accompanying evidence, the erroneous description of the pothole as being in the "eastbound lane" should result in a ruling that the notice was non-compliant and the permanent dismissal of the injury suit.