By Ron Fonger
mlive.com
FLINT, Mich. — A lawsuit filed by the mother and estates of two Flint children against the city, the Flint Fire Department, and two former city firefighters can continue in Genesee Circuit Court, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled.
In an unpublished decision issued on Wednesday, May 14, a three-judge Appeals Court panel affirmed a Circuit Court ruling that firefighters Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek are not entitled to have the case against them dismissed.
Sniegocki and Zlotek issued an all-clear after responding to a May 28, 2022, fatal house fire on Pulaski Street where Lamar D. and Zyaire Mitchell lived, but never searched a room where the two children were later found, according to an internal investigation by the city.
Zyaire Mitchell was 12 years old when he died on June 1, 2022, at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. His brother, Lamar, died two days later, also at Children’s Hospital.
An amended complaint filed by their mother, Crystal Cooper, says both boys died as a result of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning because of the firefighters’ gross negligence.
The Mitchells were left in smoldering heat and heavy smoke for roughly 7 minutes after the all-clear was issued until the time they were found during a secondary sweep by other firefighters who took them from the home.
The Appeals Court’s 10-page decision concludes “that defendants had a duty to conduct their search of the decedents’ home in a manner that was not grossly negligent.
“Plaintiff’s amended complaint alleges that defendants breached this duty, and that is sufficient to survive defendants’ motion for summary disposition at this early stage in the litigation,” the ruling says.
The firefighters also argued that their conduct did not amount to gross negligence, but Judges Colleen A. O’Brien, Kristen Frank Kelly, and Stephen L. Borrello say in the ruling that there is a question of fact whether it did.
Sniegocki and Zlotek argued that the case against them must be dismissed because they had no legal duty, that their conduct was not grossly negligent, and that evidence against them did not create a question of fact whether they were the proximate cause of the boys’ deaths.
The firefighters said in post-fire reports that they were ordered to perform a primary search of the house and that they had been told there might be victims trapped inside. Their reports say they found no one after searching the first and second floors of the house.
But a report written by former Fire Chief Raymond Barton said the two firefighters knowingly made false reports when they claimed to have searched the home’s second-floor, calling off a continued search for entrapment victims.
The Pulaski Street fire resulted in a deep divide within the Flint Fire Department and inside City Hall.
The city and the Fire Department did not join Sniegocki and Zlotek in appealing the decision of Circuit Judge B. Chris Christenson to deny their motion for summary disposition in the case.
In January 2023, Barton sued the city and Mayor Sheldon Neeley in federal court for $10 million, claiming he was fired in November 2022 after refusing to change his recommendation that Zlotek and Sniegocki be fired.
Rather than termination, Sniegocki resigned from the department three days after an investigative hearing and Zlotek’s punishment was reduced to an unpaid, two-week suspension and a requirement that he complete an eight-hour search-and-rescue refresher training course.
Zlotek also later resigned from the department.
Barton’s recommendation to terminate the firefighters was ultimately overruled inside City Hall, a decision the chief never endorsed.
His wrongful termination case against the city and the mayor, which seeks $10 million in damages, is pending in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The former fire chief’s lawsuit claims Neeley allowed Barton’s discipline recommendation to be changed in order to lock down support for his re-election from the Flint firefighters union, which has defended the actions of the two firefighters.
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