Case ID: mich-app_4/html/0278-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Fitzgerald, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

RASMUSSEN v. LINCOLN PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT.
    1. Courts — Jurisdiction—Common Pleas — Municipal Corporations.
    Common pleas court does not have jurisdiction of actions against municipal corporations (CLS 1961, § 728.1).
    2. Municipal Corporations — School District.
    A school district is a municipal corporation.
    References for Points in Headnotes
    
       20 Am Jur 2d, Courts § 87 et seq.
    
    
       47 Am Jur, Schools § 12.
    
       5 Am Jur 2d, Appeal and Error § 583.
    
       24 Am Jur 2d, Dismissal, Discontinuance, and Nonsuit §
    
       5 Am Jur 2d, Appeal and Error § 1018 et seq.
    
    
      3. Courts — Jurisdiction—Common Pleas Court — School District.
    Common pleas eourt does not have jurisdiction of an action against a school district (CLS 1961, § 728.1).
    4. Appeal and Error — Jurisdiction op Court Below — Question Not Raised.
    Court of Appeals must raise question of jurisdiction of common pleas court sua sponte, if it is not raised by appellant, when it appears that jurisdiction of the lower court in the particular action is specifically denied by statute (CLS 1961, § 728.1).
    5. Dismissal and Nonsuit — Lack op Jurisdiction — Without Prejudice.
    Reversal of judgment for plaintiff in lower eourt and dismissal because lower eourt lacked jurisdiction is without prejudice to merits of aetion in proper forum.
    6. Costs — Public Question — Lack op Jurisdiction.
    No costs are allowed on appeal by school district when action is dismissed for laek of jurisdiction in lower eourt, jurisdictional question not having been raised by appellant, where a public question is involved.
    Appeal from Common Pleas Court of the City of Detroit; Yokes (David C.), J.
    Submitted Division 1 June 3,1966, at Detroit.
    (Docket No. 1,308.)
    Decided September 13, 1966.
    Declaration by G-ail A. Rasmussen against the School District of the City of Lincoln Park, Wayne County, for balance of salary alleged due on summer teaching contract. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appeals.
    Reversed, and dismissed without prejudice for lack of jurisdiction.
    
      Roger E. Craig, for plaintiff.
    
      McGraw, Allen, Haass & Relander, for defendant.
   Fitzgerald, J.

The suit which is the subject matter of this appeal was brought in the common pleas court for the city of Detroit. Plaintiff, a teacher, was informally hired to teach in the summer session conducted by defendant school district. Following-one week’s work, plaintiff’s teaching contract was not approved by the district’s board of education and she was replaced. Suit was brought to recover the balance of the 8-weeks salary she would have received had she continued to teach.

Judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff for $507.50 damages and $7 court costs on the basis that defendant school board was estopped to deny the validity of the contract to teach since plaintiff had entered into performance thereunder. A motion for a new trial was denied and claim of appeal brought to this Court.

This Court must raise, sua sponte, a defect in the proceedings below which renders them nugatory and disposes of this appeal.

The common pleas court jurisdiction is set forth by statute and no greater powers can be conferred by action of the parties in not raising the issue. Millman Brothers, Inc., v. City of Detroit (1966), 2 Mich App 161.

That statute sets forth the following mandate, CLS 1961, § 728.1 (Stat Ann 1962 Rev § 27.3651):

“And exercise concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court of the county in which said common pleas court is located in all civil actions now cognizable in said circuit court wherein the debt or damages do not exceed $3,000, except actions against municipal corporations.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Defendant in the instant case is a municipal corporation by definition over the years. School District No. 4 of the Township of Marathon v. Gage (1878), 39 Mich 484 (33 Am Rep 421), has been consistently cited for this proposition, more recently in Attorney General, ex rel. McRae, v. Thompson (1912), 168 Mich 511, and in Hall v. Ira Township (1957), 348 Mich 402.

By virtue of the statute, supra, and the school district being a municipal corporation, the common pleas court for the city of Detroit had no jurisdiction over the instant suit.

In accord with our holding in Millman, supra, the judgment is vacated and the proceedings dismissed without prejudice.

No costs, a public question being involved.

J. H. Gtllis, P. J., and Quinn, J., concurred.