Phardel v. State

Defendants appeal by right from a judgment and award of damages entered against them in the Court of Claims. Plaintiff cross-appeals.

Rose Pharde.l, plaintiff’s decedent, was injured June 5, 1976, when she drove her car into a roadway excavation in Oakland County. She died some 18 months later on December 13, 1977, from a subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by the rupturing of a berry aneurysm.

Plaintiff brought separate wrongful death actions, the first in Oakland County Circuit Court against the contractor, Ajax Paving Industries, Inc., and the second against defendants in the Court of Claims.…