Court Opinion

ID: 9731904
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:01:07.515104+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:21.880933
License: Public Domain

R. B. Burns, J.,
(dissenting). After having reviewed the record, I find no prejudicial error as to defendant’s breaking and entering conviction and agree with the majority opinion that this conviction should be affirmed. I would, however, hold that under People v Fountain, 407 Mich 96; 282 NW2d 168 (1979), defendant’s habitual offender conviction must be vacated.
In Fountain the Supreme Court held that when a prosecutor has knowledge of a defendant’s felony record an habitual offender charge may only be filed "with the information which charged the last felony to provide fair notice to the accused and avoid an appearance of prosecutorial impropriety”. 407 Mich 96, 99.
Generally, in determining the application of a Supreme Court ruling it is necessary to focus on whether the court has set forth a new rule of law or has merely restated or clarified existing law. The following factors would be analyzed to determine the application of a new rule of law: "(1) The purpose of the new rule, (2) general reliance on the old rule and (3) the effect on the administration of justice”. People v Kamin, 405 Mich 482, 494; 275 NW2d 777 (1979).
When a new rule of law is set forth by the Supreme Court, there are a variety of ways the rule may be given effect. Placek v Sterling Heights, 405 Mich 638, 662; 275 NW2d 511 (1979). A new rule of law may be made applicable, for example, to future cases and all pending cases or to future cases and the case at bar. In People v *627Jenkins, 395 Mich 440; 236 NW2d 503 (1975), the Court limited the application of the new rule of law therein to the case at bar and all cases tried after an arbitrarily selected date. A ruling which merely restates or clarifies existing law, on the other hand, must be applied to the broadest category of cases, as nothing new is required which was not already mandated.
After balancing the relevant considerations, I do not believe that it is necessary to decide whether Fountain announced a new rule of law because I find that consideration of the traditional factors used to limit the application of a new rule produces the same result as would flow from a determination that Fountain merely clarifies or restates existing law. See People v Kamin, supra, 494.
Accordingly, I would apply the requirements of Fountain to future cases and to all cases which were pending at the date of the Fountain decision. And, when considering the present case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fountain, I would vacate defendant’s habitual offender sentence and reinstate defendant’s sentence for breaking and entering.