The Michigan Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling by a St. Joseph County Circuit judge which denied a request by two CPS workers to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them in 2010. The lawsuit was filed by Suzanne Langdon, the grandmother of 16-year-old Calista Springer, who died in the 2008 fire that destroyed her parent’s home. She was unable to be rescued by firefighters because she was chained to her bed with a dog’s choke chain.

The two CPS worker, Cynthia Bare and Patricia Skelding, are named in the lawsuit along with Calista’s parents, Anthony and Marsha Springer, and Centreville Public Schools counselor Diana Kamphues.

The suit alleges that Bare and Skelding failed to protect Calista from her parents, which resulted in her death. The abuse allegations against the Springers began in April of 1995 and included claims of lead poisoning, restraint with ropes, physical and emotional abuse, untreated burns and the fact that Calista was regularly locked in her room.

In February 2010, following Calista’s death, the Springers were both found guilty of torture and child abuse and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Langdon filed three individual lawsuits in 2010. The lawsuit that mentioned Bare and Skelding was filed in the St. Joseph County Circuit Court. The other two suits were filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, and in the Michigan Court of Claims located in Lansing, which deals with all civil actions that are filed against the State of Michigan and its agencies.

In March 2014, the Court of Appeals upheld a ruling made by the Court of Claims, which granted the dismissal of the case filed against Bare, Skelding, St. Joseph County CPS, the former DHS Director Marianna Udow, Udow’s chief deputy, and Ted Forrest, the former manager for DHHS’ CPS programs.

In coming to its decision, the three-judge panel said that as government employees, Bare and Skelding are immune from legal action unless their “conduct amounts to gross negligence that is the proximate cause of the injury” to Calista. The judges said that while Bare and Skelding may have been grossly negligent in their handling of investigations of alleged abuse against Calista, negligence, in the end, was not the single cause of Calista’s death.

With regard to the suit filed in federal court, in September U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell dismissed the action in September, granting a request filed by Bare, Skelding, Udow, Champagne and Forrest. Langdon and her attorney are appealing Bell’s decision with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.