Sharyn Haynes, et al. v. Wayne County, Tennessee

This is an appeal from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendant, Wayne County, in a wrongful death action filed under the Governmental Tort Liability Act. The plaintiff’s grandson committed suicide several hours after being released from the defendant’s jail. The plaintiff filed this wrongful death action alleging that his death was caused by the defendant’s negligence in releasing him from custody in an intoxicated state without a mental health evaluation and without notifying his family of suicidal threats that he made while incarcerated. Having reviewed the record, we conclude that the plaintiff’s evidence at the summary judgment stage is insufficient to establish that the defendant breached its duty of care to the decedent or that its conduct was a proximate cause of his death. We therefore affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment.