Court Opinion

ID: 9704764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:45:31.213302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:05.113060
License: Public Domain

Shepherd, J.
(concurring). I concur in the result reached by the majority for the reason that there is no authority in either a statute or court rule authorizing the filing of a "John Doe” complaint except in limited circumstances that are not present here. At one time there was a statute that generally authorized the filing of a complaint against an unknown defendant. MCL 600.6733; MSA 27A.6733. However, that statute was repealed by 1974 PA 297, § 2 effective April 1, 1975. *90The only other authority for filing a complaint against an unknown party is MCR 2.201(D)(1). However, the court rule only applies to unknown interested persons who are "unknown claimants,” "unknown owners,” or "unknown heirs, devisees, or assignees of a deceased person.” The John Doe defendants in the present case do not fit into any of these categories. That is not surprising since, as stated in Martin, Dean & Webster, Michigan Court Rules Practice (2d ed), Rule 2.201, p 8: "The provisions concerning unknown parties are of use chiefly in actions concerning interests in property, estates, trust funds, etc.”
Meda v City of Howell, 110 Mich App 179; 312 NW2d 202 (1981), and Fazzalare v Desa Industries, Inc, 135 Mich App 1; 351 NW2d 886 (1984), cited in the majority opinion, do not squarely address this issue. However, the Court in Meda did state that the action against the John Doe defendant did not commence until the plaintiff filed an amended complaint naming the previously unidentified defendant. Meda, p 185, n 1. It implicitly follows from the Court’s statement that there is no authority in most types of cases for filing a John Doe complaint and the filing of such a complaint is without effect. In my view, if we were to hold that a John Doe complaint is a legitimate procedural device, the unknown persons would become parties when the complaint is filed and the period of limitation would cease to run against the plaintiff the moment the complaint was filed even though the defendant is still unknown. For this reason I find the following statement in Fazzalare internally inconsistent; "While we are persuaded of no reason to prohibit the filing of 'John Doe’ complaints, it is our opinion that the running of the applicable statutory limitation period is not inter*91rupted by the filing of such a complaint.” Fazzalare, p 6.
For all these reasons, I am inevitably, although reluctantly, drawn to the conclusion that there is no authorization in most cases and certainly none in this case for filing of a John Doe complaint, and that the complaint or amended complaint naming the defendants must be filed within the statutory period. My reluctance is based on a personal preference for a rule that would permit John Doe complaints in all cases. I do not believe that the result reached here is just, but it is a result mandated by the law. A just result would, in my view, be one which allows a John Doe complaint to be filed, coupled with a due diligence requirement in cases where the defendant is, in fact and with good reason, unknown when the original complaint is filed.