Opinion ID: 2981247
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Survivorship (Claim Two)

Text: As for Claim Two (survivorship), the defendants assert that the plaintiffs have forfeited this claim because they failed to develop it on appeal. The plaintiffs’ only discussion of the issue is contained in the following two sentences in their initial brief: The trial court failed to properly address the issue of survivorship as a claim derivative on the principal claims of Excessive Force, Deliberate Indifference, and Negligence. The trial court erred in granting Defendant-Appellee’s motion for summary judgment on the primary claims; and therefore also committed reversible error by dismissing Plaintiff-Appellant’s survivorship claim as well. The plaintiffs do not develop their argument and fail to cite to any precedent laying out the contours of a survivorship claim. Under these circumstances, we deem the claim waived. McPherson v. Kelsey, 125 F.3d 989, 995 (6th Cir. 1997) (“Issues adverted to in a perfunctory manner, unaccompanied by some effort at developed argumentation, are deemed waived.” (alteration omitted) (quoting Citizens Awareness Network, Inc. v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comm’n, 59 F.3d 284, 293–94 (1st Cir. 1995))). 20 The defendants also argue that, because they raise it for the first time on appeal, the plaintiffs have forfeited the argument that Officers Hatcher and Gerke were deliberately indifferent to Foos’s medical needs by failing to inform the E.R. staff at Grady Memorial Hospital that Foos had been tased. Although the defendants’ forfeiture argument is not without merit, see Armstrong v. City of Melvindale, 432 F.3d 695, 700 (6th Cir. 2006); Borger v. CSX Transp., Inc., 571 F.3d 559, 565 (6th Cir. 2009), the record nevertheless shows that Grady Memorial Hospital’s E.R. staff was notified that Foos had been tased. Indeed, the Nursing Triage and Assessment form filled out at Grady states that Foos “was tazed.” In addition, Hatcher did not accompany Foos to Grady, and there is no evidence that Gerke did.