Opinion ID: 2712648
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: a tort by any other name?

Text: A more apt comparison for contempt of court can be found not in tort law, but instead in the various legal sanctions provided by our court rules. Like the contempt power, these sanctions serve to enforce the orderliness of court proceedings. Sometimes, courts may impose the equivalent of compensatory damages for a violation of the court rules, such as when a party who files vexatious pleadings or makes vexatious discovery demands is sanctioned by having to pay the other party’s costs. But these are not tort damages, nor are they unavailable against municipal litigants under the GTLA. The majority cites several cases in which courts have drawn analogies between civil contempt and tort in support of its conclusion that civil contempt is a tort.31 These cases do not support the majority’s conclusion; they suggest only that a civil contempt petition is analogous to a tort claim. But the majority offers these cases in support of the separate proposition that civil contempt is a tort.32 Analogies are by definition comparable, but not interchangeable. They are related, but they are not equivalent. The majority is correct that one analogous feature of these two distinct civil wrongs is that 31 Ante at 24 n 61, citing Dodson v Dodson, 380 Md 438, 453; 845 A2d 1194 (2004); Parker v United States, 153 F2d 66, 70 (CA 1, 1946); Vuitton et Fils SA v Carousel Handbags, 592 F2d 126, 130 (CA 2, 1979); Thompson v Cleland, 782 F2d 719, 722 (CA 7, 1986). 32 In particular, the majority insists that petitioner’s contempt of court claim in this case simply “recast[s]” her immunity-barred wrongful death action. This misses the core point. Neither a contempt of court petition nor a wrongful death suit is a disguise for the other. They are separate legal theories, serving separate purposes, predicated on different wrongs. That, under the facts of this case, both may lead to a similar remedy does not make them the same. Even if Michigan did not recognize a wrongful death action, hypothetically, respondent here could still have been held in contempt for failing to carry out a lawful court order if petitioner could prove the elements of contempt. 10 both can result in compensatory liability. But the similarity ends there. Tort law imposes a duty to avoid harmful conduct deemed tortious. Contempt law imposes a duty to obey the court. These duties are fundamentally different, as are their origins, and the purposes they serve. Even assuming, purely for argument’s sake, that a similarity to tort were sufficient to subject civil contempt to the same immunity rules as tort, I believe that the Legislature has foreclosed that immunity here. For while I agree with the majority that contempt sanctions are not among the five statutory exceptions to the GTLA’s grant of immunity, the GTLA does not apply in cases in which a separate statute gives rise to direct evidence that the Legislature intended to waive the state’s immunity to liability.33 The contempt statute specifically includes “[a]ll attorneys, counselors, clerks, registers, sheriffs, coroners, and all other persons in any manner elected or appointed to perform any judicial or ministerial services”34 as those subject to the court’s contempt power. By specifically including these governmental actors as among those who may be deemed 33 The majority’s discussion of waiver is incomplete. It correctly notes the five statutory GTLA exceptions, but does not meaningfully address the other areas in which the Legislature has waived immunity. “[T]here are other areas outside the GTLA where the Legislature has allowed specific actions against the government to stand, such as the Civil Rights Act.” Mack v Detroit, 467 Mich 186, 195; 649 NW2d 47 (2002), citing MCL 37.2103(g), MCL 37.2202(a), and Manning v City of Hazel Park, 202 Mich App 685, 699; 509 NW2d 874 (1993) (recognizing that governmental immunity is not a defense to claims brought under the Civil Rights Act because the act specifically includes the state and its political subdivisions and their agents as employers covered by the act. See also the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.1101 et seq. (specifically including the state and its political subdivisions as persons subject to the provisions of the act at MCL 37.1103(g)). 34 MCL 600.1701(c) (emphasis added). 11 contemnors, the Legislature has waived any claim that they are immune from contempt liability. Further, the contempt statute does not distinguish among those parties to which its various sanctions, including indemnification damages, apply.