Court Opinion

ID: 9674953
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:37:48.701588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:30.379894
License: Public Domain

Bronson, J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. I do not believe that this Court should address the issue raised in this appeal, as the matter has been rendered moot by the birth of plaintiffs’ child. The majority concedes the mootness of this appeal, yet cites Colombini v Dep’t of Social Services, supra, in an effort to justify review of the issue. Colombini, supra, is distinguishable. There, the constitutional validity of an entire statewide social services program was subject to question. Under the circumstances, this Court had little choice but to find that the issue was one "of public significance” which was not only "likely” but certain to "recur” from one fiscal year to the next. 93 Mich App 161. Compare also the authorities cited in Colombini, supra, for reviewing moot appeals; University of Michigan Regents v Michigan, 47 Mich App 23; 208 NW2d 871 (1973), aff’d 395 Mich 52; 235 NW2d 1 (1975); General Telephone Co v Public Service Comm, 78 Mich App 528; 260 NW2d 874 (1977); Milford v People's Community Hospital Authority, 380 Mich 49; 155 NW2d 835 (1968). University of Michigan Regents, supra, involved an ongoing dispute concerning the Legislature’s power to control a university’s expenditure of *163funds, Const 1963, art 8, § 5, an issue of "public significance” which was practically certain to recur from one fiscal year to the next. Similarly, General Telephone, supra, involved a dispute concerning the methods used by the Public Service Commission in setting rates; the Court found that the establishment of a 1977 rate schedule did not render moot a dispute concerning the commission’s methods of fixing 1975 rates, where the alleged errors of method would inevitably carry over from one year to another.
Each of the foregoing cases involved controversies which contrast sharply with that of the present case in three respects: (1) the issues were of sweeping public significance directly affecting thousands if not millions of state residents; (2) the issues were not only "likely to recur”, but indeed, certain to recur from one fiscal year to the next; and (3) the dispute would inevitably arise between the same parties who were involved in the appeal in question. Contrast the present case where the issue in question affects a very limited number of Michigan citizens, the issue will not inevitably recur with each passing fiscal year, and, most importantly, the issue will probably never recur between the parties involved in this appeal. In short, I do not believe that the majority has cited any authority which would justify its judicial activism.1
*164Even if this case were not moot, I would have reservations about the result reached by the majority. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act has recently been the subject of numerous appeals, and in many of these cases one of the parties has sought to substantially broaden the act’s application. This Court has frequently accommodated requests to read the act broadly, to an extent which I believe has come to exceed that contemplated by the Legislature. Although mootness has caused me to refrain from commenting on the substantive result reached by the majority in this particular case, I find cause for concern in this Court’s increasing tendency to routinely resort to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act as an omnibus or all-purpose remedy.
I would dismiss the appeal and affirm on the basis of mootness._

 The remaining authority cited by the court in Colombini, supra, for review of moot issues was Milford, supra, a case involving a dispute concerning the standards used by hospitals to terminate doctors’ staff privileges. The Supreme Court justified review by observing that "[t]he nature of this case is such that we are unlikely to receive the question in the near future”, 380 Mich 55-56. The present case is distinguishable. Although the issue raised by this appeal will probably never recur between the present parties, this Court will have ample opportunity to address it in the foreseeable future. This follows from the fact that plaintiffs’ family arrangement, while not prevalent, is hardly unique. Others may bring claims similar to that *164of plaintiffs; this Court can and should await the development of such a genuine case and controversy, to review the merits of such a claim.