Residents Of Flint Can Now Sue Over Contaminated Water According To New Ruling

Michigan Court of Appeals judge Mark T. Boonstra has ruled that residents of Flint, Michigan can now officially proceed with suing state officials over the contaminated water that has infiltrated their city. The fifty page ruling was released this past Thursday. The officials being sued by Flint residents include Michigan Governor Rick Synder, two former Flint emergency managers, and Michigan's departments of Health and Human Services and Environmental Quality. Flint's water crises began when state appointed emergency city managers, in a devastatingly misguided effort to cut costs at the expense of residents, switched the cities water source to the unsanitary Flint River. A year later, the effects of that decision are still being felt. Boonstra disagreed with statements made by state officials that pointed out that since the lawsuit was filed six months after the beginning of the water debacle they should be dismissed, saying that they were “unpersuasive.” The ruling read, "Were the court to accept defendants’ position, it would have to find that the plaintiffs’ claims are barred because they should have filed suit (or notice) at a time when the state itself was stating that it lacked any reason to know that the water supply was contaminated." Democratic Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, expressed satisfaction with the ruling saying, “The judge decided that the people of Flint should be allowed to seek the justice that they deserve in the courts. This decision supports what I’ve been saying all along — the emergency managers appointed during the Flint water crisis were acting as agents of state government who put the bottom line ahead of the health of Flint’s citizens.”

Residents of Flint are looking to receive monetary compensation for damages incurred by the water crisis. To read more on the Flint water crises and Hip Hop's response head here.

H/T: The Detroit News