Newsletter

Thank you viewing the law firm of Harry, McMillen & Fiederlein, E-Newsletter. As I am currently involved in a lawsuit regarding damages from back-ups of sewers, I recently read the Michigan Supreme Court decision of Pohutski and was concern with the lack of reliance on prior precedent.

Recently, on April 2, 2002 the Michigan Supreme Court decided the case of Pohutski v. City of Allen Park, 465 Mich. 675, 641 N.W.2nd 219 (2002) holding that the government tort liability act did not preserve common law trespass-nuissance exception to governmental immunity, overruling Hadfield v. Oakland County Drain Comm’r, 430 Mich. 139, 422 N.W.2d 205.

I recommend that you read the attached decision to get an understanding of the legal issues involved in this case including the important concept in American Jurisprudence named Stare Decisis. Generally, Stare Decisis is the principal that Courts should follow the precedent of prior cases before it in ruling on future cases because “it promotes the evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development of legal principals and fosters reliance on judicial decisions, and contributes to the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial process.” Id. at 231.

Justice Marilyn J. Kelly, dissented with the decision of the Supreme Court because the majority of the Court disregarded Stare Decisis or the long standing precedent of prior Courts to make its own interpretation of a Michigan Statute. She stated:
What must be apparent to all, when the rhetoric is stripped of its gloss, is that the Court is again ignoring its own past rulings. And, if each successive Court, believe its own reading is correct and past readings wrong, rejects precedent, then the law will fluctuate from year to year, rendering our jurisprudence dangerously unstable.”
Id. at 240.

It is my personal opinion that by unstable, Justice Kelly is concerned that it is not the duty of the justice system to overturn prior precedent as it renders the Court subject to its political underpinnings which is the job of the legislative branch of government.