Opinion ID: 831445
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: overview of the mootness doctrine

Text: It is well established that a court will not decide moot issues. This is because it is the principal duty of this Court... to decide actual cases and controversies. Federated Publications, Inc. v. City of Lansing, 467 Mich. 98, 112, 649 N.W.2d 383 (2002), citing Anway v. Grand Rapids R. Co., 211 Mich. 592, 610, 179 N.W. 350 (1920). That is, `[t]he judicial power ... is the right to determine actual controversies arising between adverse litigants, duly instituted in courts of proper jurisdiction.' Anway, 211 Mich. at 616, 179 N.W. 350 (citation omitted). As a result, this Court does not reach moot questions or declare principles or rules of law that have no practical legal effect in the case before it. Federated Publications, 467 Mich. at 112, 649 N.W.2d 383. Although an issue is moot, however, it is nevertheless justiciable if the issue is one of public significance that is likely to recur, yet evade judicial review. Id. It is `universally understood ... that a moot case is one which seeks to get a judgment on a pretended controversy, when in reality there is none, ... or a judgment upon some matter which, when rendered, for any reason, cannot have any practical legal effect upon a then existing controversy.' Anway, 211 Mich. at 610, 179 N.W. 350, quoting Ex parte Steele, 162 F. 694, 701 (N.D.Ala.1908). Accordingly, a case is moot when it presents nothing but abstract questions of law which do not rest upon existing facts or rights. Gildemeister v. Lindsay, 212 Mich. 299, 302, 180 N.W. 633 (1920). In general, because reviewing a moot question would be a `purposeless proceeding,' Stern v. Stern, 327 Mich. 531, 534, 42 N.W.2d 737 (1950) (citation omitted), appellate courts will sua sponte refuse to hear cases that they do not have the power to decide, including cases that are moot, In re MCI Telecom Complaint, 460 Mich. 396, 434 n. 13, 596 N.W.2d 164 (1999), citing Ideal Furnace Co. v. Int'l Molders' Union of North America, 204 Mich. 311, 169 N.W. 946 (1918). [2] Whether a case is moot is a threshold issue that a court addresses before it reaches the substantive issues of the case itself. In re MCI, 460 Mich. at 435 n. 13, 596 N.W.2d 164.