By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jerome Ridley often dressed too warmly for the weather. Even in the heat wave that hit southern Ohio in 1999 the mentally retarded man who lived alone - but was under Hamilton County's care - wore winter coats and kept his windows shut tight.

But after workers from the county's Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities stopped visiting the 33-year-old man that summer, he died of heatstroke in his South Fairmount apartment. His family sued the county and its workers alleging their negligence caused his death.

That lawsuit was kicked out of court because Ohio law says government agencies cannot be sued - except in rare and specific cases - for death, injury or losses that happen while public employees are performing their official duties.

Using the Ridley case, the Ohio Supreme Court is now reconsidering that blanket immunity.

The question before the court: If an agency violates a law that carries a criminal penalty, is that enough to allow citizens to sue them?

In a lawsuit-charged society - where people sue fast food companies over obesity and multi-million judgments are leveled against tobacco firms for lung cancer - the Ohio law meant to protect public employees could make it even easier to sue if the Supreme Court sides with Ridley's family.

Even so, it won't open a floodgate of lawsuits, said attorney Raymond Katz, the lawyer representing Ridley's family. Few statutes impose government liability, he said.

"You have to look at the facts of a case. Here, the facts are horrendous,'' said Katz.

One way of preventing such a case in the future, he said: Hold the public agency accountable.

The law is in place to protect public agencies from frivolous lawsuits, argued a lawyer representing the county's Board of Mental Retardation.

"Far too many frivolous lawsuits are being brought," argued Bob Laufman, of the Cincinnati firm Laufman and Gerhardstein. "Sovereign immunity is a way to limit those suits."

Attorney Bernard Wharton, the lawyer representing the county's insurer, denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.

And Jenny Dexter, a spokeswoman for the county agency meant to care for Ridley, said his caseworkers did nothing wrong in the case.

"They went above and beyond to help him get through numerous struggles," Dexter said. "They're both still are devastated this ended in Jerome's tragic death.''

That's not good enough, said Katz.

"We could all have brothers or sisters or sons or daughters in the same situation," he said. "The law says MRDD must care for them and when they don't they should be held accountable if the breach of the duty results in serious harm or death."

The case dates to July 1999 when Ridley was living independently in a Queen City Avenue apartment, but was under the care of the county agency, according to the lawsuit.

The agency first assigned Jerry Clark as Ridley's case manager in February 1998. In October, Sonjua Day was assigned to visit Ridley at least once a week, and to help him with tasks such as grocery shopping and paying bills.

Sometimes uncooperative

Ridley wasn't always cooperative, sometimes refusing to open the door, other times refusing to listen, Katz said.

The lawsuit accused Day of closing out the case on July 15, saying "I was done with him in July ... July 15 ... because he wouldn't work with the plan. I couldn't get him to do anything."

MRDD's Dexter explained that although Day stopped visiting Ridley herself, the county was still involved with him, with Clark visiting Ridley every other week.

"Closing out a case is a huge process; it's not as simple as saying 'I'm not going to work with them anymore,' " Dexter said.

How visits are handled is a decision the entire team who cared for Ridley would make. "They did not just drop him," Dexter said.

No contact for 13 days

For the next 13 days, county workers had no contact with Ridley, agency records detailed in the lawsuit show.

Clark found Ridley's body on July 29 after deciding to check up on him.

Clark declined to comment and Day did not return a phone call to her office. Dexter said they did not want to talk about the Ridley's death.

"The practical effect of it is not that he didn't need help, it's that (Day) didn't want to do it," said Katz. "She did that at a time when there were daily headlines from people who died from a killer heat wave. There was a heat emergency."

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in 2000 accusing MRDD, the owners of Ridley's apartment, the city of Cincinnati's building department, Clark and Day of negligence. The building's owners have since settled with Ridley's estate.

Judge Mark Schweikert dismissed the lawsuit against the county agency, saying it cannot be sued because the law grants it immunity.

Katz argued the case to the First District Court of Appeals, which agreed in part, saying the agency itself could not sued, but if one of its workers is deemed to have acted recklessly they lose immunity.

Katz has now appealed that ruling to the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing that the agency knew or suspected that Jerome Ridley was in a state of neglect because of the heat wave, and the caseworkers had a duty to report the neglect.

The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 2003 and should issue a decision early this year.

Failing to report neglect is a crime. In those circumstances failing to report the neglect imposes liability on the county agency, Katz argued before the court.

"It's a case where you get a gut feeling," Katz said. "You have to cut through the legal mumbo jumbo and say this just isn't right."

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E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com