Court Opinion

ID: 9679062
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:39:37.151474+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:33:47.485532
License: Public Domain

Baum, J.
(concurring). I concur, on the ground that a judgment of the Oakland county probate court bars the plaintiff from questioning the defendant’s status as her mother.
Frances Beatty brought this lawsuit to establish that Alice Brooking is not her lawful mother. Apparently she did this to be relieved of any obligation to support Alice Brooking.
There is an order of the probate court of Wayne county, almost a half century old, by which it appears that Alice - Brooking and her husband, Clifford, adopted the plaintiff, Frances Beatty, when she was a child of tender years. But Frances *586Beatty contends that she was not lawfully adopted by the Brookings, because they were not husband and wife when the adoption order was entered in 1919. Frances Beatty seeks to have the adoption order set aside on the ground that it was procured by fraud, in that Alice Brooking misrepresented her marital status to the Wayne county probate court. Frances Beatty also insists that the adoption order of 1919 is void for lack of jurisdiction, because she was then a resident of Indiana and no guardian was appointed for her, despite her infancy.
The trouble with Mrs. Beatty’s claim is that she recently had an opportunity in another forum to litigate the very issue presented by this case: the issue of her filial relationship to Alice Brooking. The decision in that forum, adverse to her, is res judicata of the issue.
The proceeding referred to took place in the probate court of Oakland county, Judge Donald Adams presiding. The proceeding was a “poor law” action by the State of Michigan, pursuant to CL 1948, § 401.1 et seq., as amended by PA 1953, No 148 (Stat Ann 1960 Rev § 16.121 et seq.), to compel Frances Beatty to support Alice Brooking, as a dependent parent. It culminated in a judgment on January 16, 1964, ordering Frances Beatty to pay the State department of social welfare $24 a month for the support of her mother, Alice Brooking. Under the statute in question, the Oakland county probate court must have decided that Alice Brooking was Frances Beatty’s mother.
A final judgment on the merits, rendered by a court having jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties, precludes them from relitigating the matter or matters disposed of by the judgment. Knowlton v. City of Port Huron (1959), 355 Mich 448.
*587There can he no question that the judgment of the Oakland county probate court was a final adjudication and was on the merits.
The probate court of Oakland county had jurisdiction over the person of Frances Beatty. She was named as a respondent in the “poor law” proceeding. An attorney appeared for her and contested the proceeding on the merits. By her own testimony she made five or six support payments pursuant to the support order of the probate court.
The parties in the instant suit and in the probate proceeding are the same. The “poor law” proceeding was entitled “In the matter of Alice Brooking.” Either Alice Brooking was a party to the “poor law” proceeding, or the State of Michigan was acting on her behalf, and as her privy. At the time of the “poor law” case the State was paying for Alice Brooking’s support and was subrogated to the right of support which Alice Brooking had against Frances Beatty. Thus the contest in the Oakland county probate court was between the same persons who are parties to the present case, or their privies. Weeks v. Downing (1874), 30 Mich 4; Mloodyanowski v. Raniak (1927), 238 Mich 296.
There is no doubt that the Oakland county probate court had jurisdiction of the subject matter. OL 1948, § 401.1 et seq., supra, empowers the probate court, upon notice and hearing, to order the “children of any poor person” to pay for such poor person’s support, if the child in question has the financial ability to do so. The statute necessarily confers jurisdiction to determine whether the respondent is a child of the pauper and, incidentally, to determine any issue of fact or law upon *588which, filial status may turn.* This includes jurisdiction to determine the validity of the Wayne county probate court adoption order.
The matter before this Court is the same matter adjudicated in the Oakland county probate court. It is not clear from the record whether Mrs. Beatty presented evidence in the Oakland county probate court to prove that Alice Brooking was not her mother. But it really doesn’t matter, inasmuch as she had an opportunity to do so. Barris v. Emmons (1913), 173 Mich 590.
The decision of a court having jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter is res judicata, not only of the issues which were actually litigated, but of those issues which could have been presented to the court. In Gursten v. Kenney (1965), 375 Mich 330, 335, the Michigan Supreme Court quotes with approval the following rule:
“ ‘ “The plea of res judicata applies, except in special cases, not only to points upon which the court was actually required by the parties to form an opinion and pronounce a judgment, but to every point which properly belonged to the subject of litigation, and which the parties, exercising reasonable diligence, might have brought forward at the time.” ’ ”
The principle of res judicata applies not only to claims which plaintiffs may make, but applies as well to matters of defense. Barris v. Emmons, supra, holds that a valid judgment for the plaintiff operates to bar not only the defenses interposed and adjudicated, but also those which might have been raised.
In summary, we observe that the “poor law” contest in the probate court was between the same *589parties as the instant suit, or their privies; the issue of filial and maternal status was the same; the probate court had jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter; and its decision was final and on the merits. We conclude, therefore, that the decision of the Oakland probate court is res judicata of the issue presented in the case at bar.
We are not impressed with the argument that Frances Beatty did not know of the infirmity in the Brookings’ marital status during the pendency of the “poor law” proceeding.
In the first place, if some newly discovered evidence were to provide a basis for reopening the Oakland county probate proceeding, Frances Beatty’s remedy would be to make such a motion in the probate case and not to attack the Oakland county probate judgment, collaterally, in these proceedings.
In the second place, by Frances Beatty’s own testimony, she had notice, during the pendency of the Oakland county probate court proceedings, of a possible infirmity in the marital status of Alice and Clifford Brooking. She testified that she told her lawyer in the Oakland county probate proceeding what she knew concerning this infirmity.
This cuts the ground out from under any claim by Frances Beatty that she didn’t become aware of the invalidity of Alice Brooking’s 1910 marriage until after the conclusion of the support proceeding in the Oakland county probate court. When the Oakland county probate proceeding was. pending, Frances Beatty was bound to use due diligence to gather all her ammunition so that it might be used in that contest. She cannot have the benefit of a new trial on the basis of evidence which could have been produced in the “poor law” proceeding by the exercise of ordinary diligence. Grossman v. Langer (1934), 269 Mich 506.
*590Frances Beatty did not appeal the order of the Oakland county probate court. Instead she respected it and paid the support for a period of time. She started the instant action in the Oakland county circuit court after the time for appeal of the probate order had expired. Frances Beatty had her day in court. She is not entitled to a second day. She is barred by the judgment of the Oakland county probate court from questioning the status of Alice Brooking as her lawful mother.
For these reasons the judgment below should be reversed with costs to the appellant.

 Patently, the legislature has constitutional power to grant such jurisdiction to the probate eonrt. Const 1908, art 7, § 13; Const 1963, art 6, § 15.