Ballard v. Ypsilanti Township

Defendant Ypsilanti Township appeals as of right from the jury verdicts in favor of plaintiffs in this case involving governmental immunity. We reverse.

On July 4, 1991, plaintiffs’ decedents, Kassim Ballard, age eleven, and Anthony Wilkes, age twelve, were taken with a group of boys to Ford Lake Park in Ypsilanti by two adults, Haratio Blacksher and Veronica Mitchell. Although Mitchell told the boys not to go swimming, Blacksher allowed them to go into the water. The boys were nonswimmers. Ballard was in the water about ten to twelve feet out when he lost his footing. Wilkes went to help him…