Opinion ID: 1189190
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Oakland County and official-capacity claim

Text: Although the preceding qualified-immunity analysis shields Dragovic from Waeschle's individual-capacity claim, we have declined to evaluate the merits of Waeschle's due process claim because we are uncertain as to whether Michigan law gives Waeschle a property interest in her deceased mother's brain that is constitutionally protected. Waeschle's due process claim against Dragovic in his official capacity and against Oakland County is therefore still pending. We have already explained that the merits of Waeschle's constitutional claim depend primarily on whether, under Michigan law, she had a property interest in her deceased mother's brain. See Women's Med. Prof'l Corp. v. Baird, 438 F.3d 595, 611 (6th Cir.2006) (explaining that the question of whether a constitutionally protected property interest exists is often a question of state law). Specifically, Waeschle's due process claim turns on the answer to the following state-law question: Assuming that a decedent's brain has been removed by a medical examiner in order to conduct a lawful investigation into the decedent's cause of death, do the decedent's next-of-kin have a right under Michigan law to possess the brain in order to properly bury or cremate the same after the brain is no longer needed for forensic examination? Given our view that the Michigan courts are better suited to answer the unsettled state-law aspect of Waeschle's due process claim than we are, we will exercise our discretion to have the district court certify the above-stated issue to the Michigan Supreme Court. See Transamerica Ins. Co. v. Duro Bag Mfg. Co., 50 F.3d 370, 372 (6th Cir.1995) (explaining that certification to a state's highest court is proper when the question is new and state law is unsettled) (citations omitted); Geib v. Amoco Oil Co., 29 F.3d 1050, 1060 (6th Cir.1994) (observing that certification is appropriate where an important question of state law has arisen solely in federal court); Mich. Ct. R. § 7.305(B)(1) (permitting the Michigan Supreme Court to address questions of Michigan law that have been certified by a federal court).