Court Opinion

ID: 9732559
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:25:50.670452+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:29.344620
License: Public Domain

Michael J. Kelly, P.J.
(concurring). I fully concur in the per curiam opinion. I write only to emphasize my agreement with the ruling in St Clair Commercial & Savings Bank v Macauley, 66 Mich App 210; 238 NW2d 806 (1975), lv den 396 NW2d 864 (1976), on the requirement for the trial court to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether allegations of fraud and misrepresentation are meritorious. To the extent that Michigan Bank-Midwest v DJ Reynaert, Inc, 165 Mich App 630, 643; 419 NW2d 439 (1988), dilutes that rule, I think it was wrongly decided. The panel in Reynaert finessed an exception to the rule of St Clair Commercial & Savings Bank when it condoned the trial court’s refusal to conduct an evidentiary hearing to resolve a contested question of fraud. Its stated reason, "we do not conclude that the court erred by not holding an evidentiary hearing on this issue because, as we indicated earlier, the trial judge would have been absolutely correct in denying the motion to intervene on the basis that the amendment to the memorandum opinion extinguished any rights of the intervenors” is illogical and can only be interpreted as a harmless error rationale. This undermines the clear ruling of St Clair Commercial and should be repudiated.