Court Opinion

ID: 9690044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:52:16.323771+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:53.365829
License: Public Domain

Levin, J.
(dissenting). I would deny leave to appeal rather than purport to "affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals” with the flag that "the opinion of the Court of Appeals shall have no precedential force or effect. See Bernthal v Aetna *94Casualty & Surety Co, 444 Mich 1216 (1994).” Ante, p 93.
The Court does not indicate how the Court of Appeals might have erred in its analysis. Today’s decision is similar to recent decisions in Bernthal, supra, and Ginther v Ovid-Elsie Area Schools, 444 Mich 1218 (1994), in which this Court denied leave to appeal with the flag that the reported opinions of the Court of Appeals in those cases shall have no precedential force or effect. I repeat what I said in a separate statement in Bernthal and in Ginther:
The Michigan Court of Appeals was established by the 1963 Constitution, and the judges of the Court are elected public officials who perform a function set forth in the constitution. Their published opinions are authoritative statements of law, not by grace of this Court, but by the power vested in the Court of Appeals by the constitution.
The precedential force or effect of an opinion of the Court of Appeals should not be set aside absent a determination by this Court or the United States Supreme Court that the Court of Appeals erred. Such a decision should not be lightly made, and clearly should not be made without plenary consideration, and the resulting notice to other persons who might be favorably or adversely affected by an affirmance or reversal of the decision of the Court of Appeals who might seek to file a brief as amicus curiae.
Further, this Court’s order denying precedential force or effect to an opinion of the Court of Appeals avoids compliance with the constitutional imperative that decisions of this Court "shall be in writing and shall contain a concise statement of the facts and reasons for each decision and reasons for each denial of leave to appeal.” Const 1963, art 6, §6.