Court Opinion

ID: 9577298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:33:41.809806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:18.958167
License: Public Domain

Danhof, P. J.,
(dissenting). The facts and procedural posture of this case are such that we need not decide whether the Secretary can, in an appropriate proceeding, obtain a judicial order of setoff. Furthermore, the propriety of the Secretary’s ad-, ministrative setoff has not been properly challenged by plaintiff.
Plaintiff’s appeal is before us on the denial of his motion to set aside a consent judgment. The trial court’s comment from the bench, that it saw "nothing wrong with the action of the Secretary of State”, made at the conclusion of the hearing, was not a judicial determination that the statute permitted the setoff of competing claims.
Since a consent judgment is in the nature of a contract which the court has given its formal approval, it generally cannot be opened, changed, or set aside, without the further assent of the *84parties, in the absence of fraud, duress, or mistake. Blaske v Blaske, 33 Mich App 210; 189 NW2d 713 (1971); Russell v White, 63 Mich 409; 29 NW 865 (1886).
Plaintiff has not alleged fraud, mistake, or misrepresentation. Indeed it was plaintiff who failed to make disclosure that he, an uninsured motorist, was a defendant in another civil action in which judgment was entered against him some five days prior to the entry of the consent judgment at issue in this case.
The majority opinion allows plaintiff, by his motion to set aside this consent judgment, to accomplish the result of compelling the Secretary to pay the full $4000 judgment. Once the consent judgment had been entered, and confronted with the Secretary’s administrative setoff, plaintiff’s recourse should have properly been an action for mandamus in this Court against the Secretary. GCR 1963, 714.1. Eg., Brunner v Secretary of State, 48 Mich App 535; 210 NW2d 786 (1973).
Nevertheless, since the majority wishes to treat the trial court’s denial of plaintiff’s motion as a judicial order of setoff, I will address that issue. I cannot agree that under all circumstances the Secretary’s only recourse against a fund debtor is suspension of driving privileges. Under MCLA 257.1109; MSA 9.2809, the Secretary must receive an assignment of a judgment before making any payments from the fund. The full extent of the Secretary’s rights, as judgment creditor are not a matter of decision for this case. However, I can see no reason why the Secretary, as assignee of a judgment against plaintiff, could not object to payment of part of the judgment in plaintiff’s favor on the ground of setoff. It would then be appropriate for the trial court to make "a finding *85or determination in respect of any matter in connection with the application for payment out of the fund”. MCLA 257.1107(2); MSA 9.2807(2). Courts do have the authority to order setoff of mutual judgments. Franklin Co v Buhl Land Co, 264 Mich 531; 250 NW 299 (1933).
The majority opinion implies that to allow the Secretary a right of setoff would defeat the absolute right of the fund debtor to avail himself of the installment payment provisions of MCLA 257.1110(b); MSA 9.2810(b). The language of that section, however, clearly implies discretion on the part of the Secretary, as to whether to agree to installment payments:
"Commenced installment repayments in accordance with an agreement entered into with the secretary.”
Such an agreement is unlike an installment judgment pursuant to GCR 1963, 523, where the judgment creditor’s assent need not be obtained and only the trial court’s approval of payment by installments is needed to forestall garnishment.
I would affirm.