Court Opinion

ID: 9702117
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:55:35.590312+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:33.858582
License: Public Domain

Boyle, J.
(concurring). This Court has held that *145the right of the people to appeal to the Court of Appeals is limited by statute to those situations explicitly set forth in MCL 770.12(l)(a), (b), and (c); MSA 28.1109(l)(a), (b), and (c).1 People v Cooke, 419 Mich 420, 430; 355 NW2d 88 (1984). In apparent response to this decision the prosecution sought and was granted a writ of superintending control, vacating the trial court’s grant of a motion for new trial. I agree that the writ was not properly issued in this case. I write separately to note that the combined effect of People v Cooke and today’s decision is to insulate all but the most egregious error from review at the request of the people.2
*146An appeal and a writ of superintending control are, functionally and conceptually, different. An appeal is primarily a device for correcting legal error which occurs in the course of litigation. A writ of superintending control, on the other hand, is "designed to correct errors so gross as to be almost foreign to the judicial system.” Note, Supervisory and advisory mandamus under the all writs act, 86 Harv L R 595, 626 (1973). The former primarily protects the interests of the particular litigants as the final stage of the process through which justice is achieved. The latter serves the interests of the judicial system as a whole as a device for protecting the system’s integrity and furthering its efficiency. Id., 626-627.3
Limitations on the scope of review available by way of a writ of superintending control stem from a concern that expansive review would be inconsistent with legislative limitations on the prosecution’s right to appeal. Use of the writ to review excesses of jurisdiction, however, was recognized in the courts long before the government was given a right to appeal and was never thought to be inconsistent with statutory provisions limiting appeals in civil or criminal cases. 3 LaFave & Israel, Criminal Procedure, §26.4, pp 238-239. As the authors of one leading treatise reason:_
*147"In limiting the government’s right to appeal, Congress has made it clear that the government cannot complain of ordinary trial errors. It must submit to the decisions of the frailest judge. But Congress cannot have intended that the Government be obliged to submit to arbitrary judges who refuse to behave as judges. The 'jurisdiction’ of the courts of appeals, as that term is used in § 1651, must include the power of the courts of appeals to insure that its district courts are in fact courts and not schools of solipsism.” [Id., p 239, quoting 9 Moore, Ward & Lucas, Moore’s Federal Practice (2d ed), ¶ 110.28, pp 305-306.]
This Court is not unique in recognizing that the writ will lie in criminal cases to review excesses of jurisdiction and to compel the performance of a clear legal duty.4 Genesee Prosecutor v Genesee Circuit Judge, 386 Mich 672, 681; 194 NW2d 693 (1972). Hence, the vital corrective and didactive function of the writ may be required even in a criminal case and at the urging of the prosecution. See also Will v United States, 389 US 90, 97-98; 88 S Ct 269; 19 L Ed 2d 305 (1967).5
I agree with the majority that it is appropriate *148to prevent expansion of the use of superintending control as a substitute for appeal. I write separately, not to disagree with Justice Archer and my colleagues, but simply to observe that it would be neither wise nor appropriate to impermissibly confine the Court of Appeals ability to take corrective action which, in the exercise of discretion, it concludes is necessary. To do so is to eliminate an important check on the accuracy of trial court decisions. The state no less than the defendant has a compelling interest in the correct application of the law.
In my view, therefore, the majority’s correct construction of the limited scope of the writ together with the limitations on appeals set forth in Cooke, supra, make it imperative that this Court recognize and accept the invitation of the Legislature to authorize applications for leave to appeal at the request of the prosecution. The Legislature specifically provides:
The court of appeals has jurisdiction on appeal from the following orders and judgments which shall be reviewable only upon application for leave to appeal granted by the court of appeals:
* * *
(d) Such other judgments or interlocutory orders as the supreme court may by rule determine. [MCL 600.308(2)(d); MSA 27A.308(2)(d).]
The Legislature reenacted this provision granting this Court rule-making authority in 1981, three years after the "limiting provisions of § 12 of the Code of Criminal Procedure . . . .” People v Cooke, supra, 427. This Court should, in candor, recognize that the Legislature has reaffirmed our *149authority to promulgate rules with regard to appeals by leave that may enlarge the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals. See note to Proposed MCR 7.203, 428A Mich 9, 11 (1987).
There is no legislative obstacle preventing this Court from promulgating rules enlarging the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals and authorizing prosecutor appeals by leave. In recognition of this premise, the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee has proposed an amendment of MCR 7.203(B) which would provide an appeal by leave "to any aggrieved party, including the people in a criminal case when the protection against double jeopardy would not bar further proceedings against the defendant . . . .” Proposed MCR 7.203(B), 428A Mich 9 (1987).
It is fully consistent with the legislative intent and this Court’s decision in Cooke to create a right in the prosecution to seek leave to appeal where jeopardy would not be offended. See note to Proposed MCR 7.203(B), supra, 11. Our affirmative response to this invitation would provide an avenue by which the Court of Appeals could correct serious trial error. It would also allow the public a voice in the appellate process, a voice which has been effectively silenced by the combined effect of Cooke and today’s opinion. While the Court should, as always, pay heed to opposing views in the rule-making process,6 neither side of a case has a "legitimate interest in immunizing legal errors from correction.” Note to Proposed Criminal Rule MCR 7.203, supra, 10.
Turning to the case at bar, review of the order granting a new trial arguably would have been available previously only under a writ of certiorari. The writ of certiorari was for review of errors *150of law and was limited to the inquiry whether "the inferior tribunal, upon the record made, had jurisdiction, whether or not it exceeded that jurisdiction and proceeded according to law.” Genesee Prosecutor v Genesee Circuit Judge, supra, 681.
I agree with the majority that the discretionary nature of the trial court’s determination to grant a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence does not lend itself to the limited review afforded by an order of superintending control viewed in the nature of a writ of certiorari.7
Riley, C.J., and Griffin, J., concurred with Boyle, J. _

 The United States Supreme Court, in an analogous context, has also declined to permit an appeal by the government in the absence of specific congressional authorization. United States v Sanges, 144 US 310; 12 S Ct 609; 36 L Ed 445 (1892). See also Carroll v United States, 354 US 394; 77 S Ct 1332; 1 L Ed 2d 1442 (1957). In 1970, Congress declared the government’s right to appeal from orders dismissing an indictment or information except where the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits further prosecution. 18 USC 3731. In the wake of Cooke, a bill has been introduced and is pending in the Michigan Legislature which would amend § 12 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to reflect the federal statute. HB 4719, 1987 Journal of the House 1483 (No. 53, June 2,1987).
In addition, in the final report of the Citizens’ Commission to Improve Michigan Courts, a recommendation was made to "[e]xtend the prosecuting attorney’s right to appeal decisions other than acquittals.” Final Report of the Citizens’ Commission to Improve Michigan Courts, p 16. In the words of the commission:
We are also concerned about the limitations presently placed upon the prosecuting attorneys’ right to appeal. The prosecutor is the attorney who represents "the People,” and the prosecutor’s duty is to seek justice, not merely convictions. Where the prosecutor believes that a trial court has committed an error of law, an appeal should be available. Of course, no prosecutor could ever be permitted to appeal an acquittal, but the People’s attorney should have access to the appellate courts on approximately the same terms as a defense attorney. [id]

 In Cooke, the Court construed § (lXc) of the statute allowing prosecutor appeals "[fjrom a decision or judgment sustaining a special plea in bar, when the defendant has not been put in jeopardy” as permitting appeals only where the jury had not been sworn. This Court thus viewed the statute in a more restrictive manner than the *146United States Supreme Court did in declining appeals by the government, absent congressional authorization. Under 18 USC 3731, the test for determining whether the principles of double jeopardy would bar further prosecution is not "when double jeopardy attaches.” The defendant’s conviction in Cooke which was reversed as the result of a directed verdict after the jury had found him guilty, could, under the federal definition of jeopardy, be reinstated on appeal by the government because reinstatement of the conviction would not allow reprosecution of the defendant for the same offense. United States v Wilson, 420 US 332; 95 S Ct 1013; 43 L Ed 2d 232 (1975).

 See also Genesee Prosecutor v Genesee Circuit Judge, 386 Mich 672, 680; 194 NW2d 693 (1972), quoting People v Flint Municipal Judge, 383 Mich 429, 432; 175 NW2d 750 (1970) ("The process is not, properly speaking, an appeal. It is rather a whole new lawsuit, with different parties and different purposes”).

 People v Flint Municipal Judge, n 3 supra, 431 (superintending control, like mandamus, lies to review the discretion of an examining magistrate and to require the magistrate to perform a function where the magistrate has a clear legal duty to act); Genesee Prosecutor v Genesee Circuit Judge, n 3 supra (superintending control is proper for the purpose of determining whether a circuit judge acted without authority in accepting, over the objection of the prosecutor, a guilty plea to an offense not charged by the people or included within the offense charged); People v Rehkopf, 422 Mich 198; 370 NW2d 296 (1985) (superintending control will lie to review a lower court’s decision invalidating a statute); see also People v Gebarowski, 47 Mich App 379; 209 NW2d 543 (1973).

 In Will, supra, the United States Supreme Court recognized that in criminal cases, mandamus has been invoked successfully "where the action of the trial court totally deprived the Government of its right to initiate a prosecution, Ex parte United States, 287 US 241 [53 S Ct 129; 77 L Ed 283] (1932), and where the court overreached its judicial power to deny the Government the rightful fruits of a valid *148conviction, Ex parte United States, 242 US 27 [37 S Ct 72; 61 L Ed 129] (1916).”

 The Proposed Rules of Criminal Procedure have been published for comment, and the comment period has not expired.

 The new trial order in this situation is clearly not a final order. Compare this situation, however, to one in which the order is based on a ruling suppressing evidence that is appealable prior to trial. In the latter situation, an exception to the rule barring a government appeal from an order granting a new trial would be justified. LaFave & Israel, supra, 221.