Court Opinion

ID: 9890478
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-13 05:08:15.749737+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:18.719670
License: Public Domain

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to
                  revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

                           STATE OF MICHIGAN

                             COURT OF APPEALS

ADELINE HAMBLEY,                                                       FOR PUBLICATION
                                                                       October 12, 2023
               Plaintiff-Appellee,                                     9:15 a.m.

v                                                                      No. 365918
                                                                       Ottawa Circuit Court
OTTAWA COUNTY, OTTAWA COUNTY                                           LC No. 23-007180-CZ
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, JOE MOSS,
Individually and as an Ottawa County Commissioner,
SYLVIA RHODEA, Individually and as an Ottawa
County Commissioner, LUCY EBEL, Individually
and as an Ottawa County Commissioner,
GRETCHEN COSBY, Individually and as an Ottawa
County Commissioner, REBEKAH CURRAN,
Individually and as an Ottawa County Commissioner,
ROGER BELKNAP, Individually and as an Ottawa
County Commissioner, and ALLISON MIEDEMA
Individually and as an Ottawa County Commissioner,

               Defendants-Appellants.

Before: RICK, P.J., and SHAPIRO and YATES, JJ.

YATES, J.

        Plaintiff, Adeline Hambley, claims she is the duly appointed administrative health officer
of Ottawa County by dint of actions taken by defendant, Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
(the Commission), in late 2022 and memorialized by the board chair and the Ottawa County clerk
in a resolution. But defendants—including the Commission that was newly constituted in January
2023 as a result of the general election in November 2022—insist that Hambley was not properly
appointed, so she has no right to claim the title of health officer. The trial court not only ruled that
Hambley was properly appointed, but also issued a preliminary injunction barring the Commission
“from taking any action to remove [her] from the position of Health Officer of Ottawa County”
until this case is resolved. We granted Ottawa County’s application for leave to appeal those two
rulings, Hambley v Ottawa Co, unpublished order of the Court of Appeals, entered June 6, 2023
(Docket No. 365918), and we now resolve those issues by applying settled principles of Michigan

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law. Specifically, we affirm the trial court’s ruling that Hambley was properly appointed as health
officer of Ottawa County, but we conclude that the Commission nonetheless retains the authority
to terminate Hambley if the Commission complies with the procedures and standards prescribed
in MCL 46.11(n).

                                  I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

        Plaintiff Hambley is a longtime employee of Ottawa County, where she has worked in the
health department for nearly two decades. After the November 2022 general election in which the
voters of Ottawa County elected a new majority to the Commission, the health officer for Ottawa
County announced that she would retire from that position by the end of March 2023. In response,
in the waning days of 2022, the outgoing Commission posted the position of Ottawa County health
officer, interviewed candidates for the job, and selected Hambley to serve as Ottawa County’s new
health officer. The outgoing Commission unanimously voted to appoint Hambley and approved a
resolution doing so at their final public meeting on December 13, 2022.

        After the new Ottawa County board members were sworn in on January 3, 2023, the status
of plaintiff Hambley as the county’s health officer became a matter of contention. The new board
voted to assign Hambley to the position of interim health officer and stated its intention to appoint
someone else to serve as Ottawa County’s health officer. Hambley responded by filing this action
on February 13, 2023, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief as well as damages for termination
in violation of public policy.1 On March 2, 2023, at the behest of plaintiff, the trial court issued a
temporary restraining order precluding defendants “from taking any action to remove . . . Hambley
from the position of Health Officer of Ottawa County until such time as the parties are heard further
on this matter[.]”

        On March 10, 2023, defendants moved for summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(7),
(8), and (10). The trial court heard oral arguments on March 31, 2023, addressing the motion for
summary disposition filed by defendants as well as plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction.
The trial court then issued a written opinion denying defendants’ motion for summary disposition,
awarding partial summary disposition to plaintiff Hambley under MCR 2.116(I)(2), and granting
a preliminary injunction prohibiting defendants from “taking any action to remove” Hambley from
the position of health officer for Ottawa County.

        Defendants filed an application for leave to appeal, which we granted in an order issued on
June 6, 2023. That order vacated the injunction insofar as “it prohibits the Ottawa County Board
of Commissioners from taking action allowed by MCL 46.11(n),” which empowers a county board
of commissioners to remove a health officer in limited circumstances and when certain processes
are afforded. We also agreed to hear “the issues whether the trial court erred in awarding judgment
to plaintiff-appellee on her claim for declaratory relief that she was appointed the health officer of

1
  Plaintiff Hambley filed a first amended complaint on March 24, 2023, expanding the number of
her claims from three to five, but the issues before us on this appeal were litigated and resolved on
the allegations and claims presented in the original complaint.

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Ottawa County by the 2022 Ottawa County Board of Commissioners and whether the trial court
erred in granting [her] a preliminary injunction.” Thus, we must now take up those two issues.

                                      II. LEGAL ANALYSIS

        The trial court’s preliminary injunction flowed from its decision to award partial summary
disposition to plaintiff Hambley pursuant to MCR 2.116(I)(2) on her claim that she was appointed
as health officer of Ottawa County in 2022 by defendant Commission. Although defendants had
moved for summary disposition, the trial court chose instead to award partial summary disposition
to Hambley. “We review de novo a trial court’s decision on a motion for summary disposition.”
El-Khalil v Oakwood Healthcare, Inc, 504 Mich 152, 159; 934 NW2d 665 (2019). A trial court
may award “summary disposition to the opposing party under MCR 2.116(I)(2) if it determines
that the opposing party, rather than the moving party, is entitled to judgment.” Jaguar Trading
Ltd Partnership v Presler, 289 Mich App 319, 322; 808 NW2d 495 (2010). In contrast to our de
novo review of the summary disposition ruling, “[t]he grant or denial of a preliminary injunction
is within the sound discretion of the trial court, and this Court will not reverse that decision absent
an abuse of discretion.” Davis v Detroit Fin Review Team, 296 Mich App 568, 612; 821 NW2d
896 (2012). “An abuse of discretion exists when the decision is outside the range of principled
outcomes.” Id. With these standards in mind, we shall first take up the award of partial summary
disposition to Hambley, and then we shall consider the propriety of the preliminary injunction.

                            A. PARTIAL SUMMARY DISPOSITION

        Defendants called the question of plaintiff Hambley’s status as the health officer for Ottawa
County by moving for summary disposition, but plaintiff emerged the winner when the trial court
granted her declaratory relief on that question under MCR 2.116(I)(2). The Commission took up
the appointment of Hambley as health officer at its scheduled meeting on December 13, 2022. The
Commission unquestionably considered and approved a motion to appoint Hambley to the position
of health officer at the meeting. Later on the date of the meeting, board chair Matthew Fenske and
Ottawa County clerk Justin Roebuck signed a resolution (the 2022 Resolution) memorializing the
action of the Commission appointing Hambley. The 2022 Resolution stated:

              At a regular meeting of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
       (“Board”) held in West Olive, Michigan on December 13, 2022 at 1:30 p.m.

                                               * * *

              The following resolution was offered by Commissioner Philip Kuyers and
       supported by Commissioner Roger Bergman:

               WHEREAS, pursuant to MCL § 52.143 and MCL § 333.2428 as amended,
       the Board is authorized to enter into a written employment contract with a person
       to act as Ottawa County’s health officer and internal administrative officer of its
       health department, provided the Michigan Department of Health and Human
       Services (“DHHS”) preliminarily and finally approves the appointment;

             WHEREAS, the Board determines that Adeline Hambley, currently the
       Ottawa County Environmental Health Officer, has the requisite qualifications that

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       would qualify her as Administrative Health Officer, to replace Lisa Stefanovski
       upon exit from the Department;

              NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Adeline Hambley is
       appointed by the Board as Ottawa County Health Officer upon the Michigan
       Department of Health and Human Services confirming she has the required
       educational certifications and work background and contingent upon successfully
       passing a background check; and

               BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution replaces, modifies,
       amends and/or supersedes all inconsistent or prior resolutions or motions regarding
       the subjects addressed herein.

The 2022 Resolution noted the “yeas” listed in the December 13, 2022 meeting minutes and stated
that there were no “nays.”

         At the next meeting of the Commission on January 3, 2023, however, a newly elected board
member moved to appoint plaintiff Hambley as interim health officer. The motion that passed that
day not only appointed Hambley “interim administrative health officer until a new administrative
health officer is hired[,]” but also authorized “the board chairperson and clerk/register to sign a
resolution to appoint Nathaniel Kelly as administrative health officer of Ottawa County contingent
upon” (1) approval of the Commission and (2) confirmation by the Michigan Department of Health
and Human Services. To justify that action effectively demoting Hambley and naming somebody
else as the new health officer, the newly constituted Commission took the position that the minutes
of the December 13, 2022 meeting did not reflect Hambley’s appointment as health officer for the
county. The relevant minutes of the December 13, 2022 meeting of the Commission state:

              Philip Kuyers moved to approve and authorize the Board Chairperson and
       Clerk/Register to sign a resolution to appoint Adeline Hambley as Ottawa County
       Administrative Health Officer contingent upon 1) approval by the Board of
       Commissioners; 2) confirmation by the Michigan Department of Health and
       Human Services that she has the required educational certifications and work
       background; and 3) successfully passing the County’s background check process.

              The motion passed as shown by the following votes: Yeas: Kyle Terpstra,
       James Holtvluwer, Douglas Zylstra, Philip Kuyers, Gregory DeJong, Randall
       Meppelink, Joseph Baumann, Roger Bergman, Allen Dannenberg, Francisco
       Garcia, Matthew Fenski.

As the newly constituted Commission saw it, on December 13, 2022, the Commission authorized
and approved the signing of a resolution appointing Hambley as health officer on three conditions,
whereas the 2022 Resolution identified only two of those conditions, omitting the condition that
Hambley had to be approved by the board. Thus, the 2022 Resolution was inoperative.

         The trial court rejected that position, ruling that the Commission approved the appointment
of plaintiff Hambley as health officer at the December 13, 2022 meeting by a unanimous vote. In
the trial court’s view, “[t]he only remaining contingencies at that point in time were confirmation

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of [plaintiff] by the MDHHS and passing the County’s background check process.” Because both
of those contingencies undoubtedly were met, “as a matter of law, Plaintiff was duly appointed as
the Ottawa County Health Director.” Neither side appears to contest the trial court’s conclusions
that Hambley was confirmed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and she
passed the Ottawa County background check. Therefore, our analysis of the trial court’s decision
on summary disposition turns on whether Hambley’s appointment required additional Commission
approval. As a matter of law, fact, and logic, we conclude that it did not require approval from the
Commission after its meeting on December 13, 2022.

         “A resolution is the form in which a legislative body expresses a determination or directs
a particular action.” Duggan v Clare Co Bd of Comm’rs, 203 Mich App 573, 576; 513 NW2d 192
(1994). When a county commission adopts a resolution, if “the language of the resolution is certain
and unambiguous, courts must apply the resolution as written.” Hardaway v Wayne Co, 494 Mich
423, 427; 835 NW2d 340 (2013). Here, the 2022 Resolution pellucidly prescribes two conditions
for plaintiff Hambley’s appointment as health officer: (1) “the Michigan Department of Health and
Human Services confirming she has the required educational certifications and work background”;
and (2) “successfully passing a background check[.]” Defendants insist that those two conditions
omit a third condition reflected in the minutes of the Commission meeting on December 13, 2022,
i.e., subsequent approval by the Commission, but that argument does not create any ambiguity in
the language of the 2022 Resolution. The chair of the Commission and the Ottawa County clerk
both signed the 2022 Resolution on December 13, 2022, so the contention that the 2022 Resolution
did not reflect the vote of the Commission rings hollow. In sum, Michigan law supports Hambley’s
position that she satisfied all of the Commission’s requirements for appointment as health officer.

        As a matter of fact, the Commission placed its imprimatur upon the appointment of plaintiff
Hambley at its meeting on December 13, 2022, so the 2022 Resolution accurately reflects the vote
of the commissioners. Our review of the video recording of that meeting leads us to the conclusion
that the Commission appointed Hambley at that meeting subject to two contingencies. The motion
the Commission passed “authorize[d] the board chairperson and clerk/register to sign a resolution
to appoint Adeline Hambley as the county administrative health officer contingent upon approval
by the board of commissioners, confirmation by the Michigan Department of Health and Human
Services that she has [the] required educational certificates and work background and successfully
passing the county’s background-check process.” Strongly suggesting that the sequence of those
three contingencies was intentional, rather than arbitrary, the Commission chair then asked, before
he called for a vote on the motion, whether Hambley had “accepted the position.” After he heard
an assurance that she had accepted the position, he called for a vote on the motion, which passed
unanimously. The Commission chair, Matthew Fenske, thereafter signed the 2022 Resolution. To
assert, under the circumstances, that Hambley had not yet received the “approval of the board of
commissioners” when the meeting ended on December 13, 2022, strains credulity.

        Moreover, we view defendants’ invitation to parse and favor the meeting minutes and video
recording in the face of unambiguous language in the 2022 Resolution is a recipe for chaos. Under
Michigan law, unambiguous resolutions constitute the gold standard for defining the decisions of
a county commission. See Hardaway, 494 Mich at 427. To encourage challenges to unambiguous
resolutions based on meeting minutes and recordings fosters uncertainty in local government. In
this case, the motion made on December 13, 2022, authorized the Commission chair and the clerk
to sign a resolution to appoint plaintiff Hambley as health officer contingent upon approval by the

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board of commissioners, confirmation by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
that she had the required educational certificates and work background, and successfully passing
the county’s background-check process. Approval by the Commission came first at the meeting
on December 13, 2022, and then—as defendants state in their appellate brief—“[i]t is undisputed
that Plaintiff obtained MDHHS approval for her credentials on December 20, 2022 and passed her
background check[.]” Because the 2022 Resolution reflected the Commission’s decision and the
two remaining contingencies, the resolution constituted “the form in which the [Commission] . . .
direct[ed] a particular action[,]” i.e., the appointment of Hambley as health officer. See Duggan,
203 Mich App at 576.

        We reject defendants’ claim that strict reliance on an unambiguous resolution runs afoul of
the Open Meetings Act (OMA), MCL 15.261 et seq., which obligates “public bodies [to] conduct
their meetings, make all of their decisions, and conduct their deliberations (when a quorum is
present) at meetings open to the public.” Speicher v Columbia Twp Bd of Trustees, 497 Mich 125,
134-135; 860 NW2d 51 (2014). According to MCL 15.270(1), “[d]ecisions of a public body shall
be presumed to have been adopted in compliance with the requirements of” the OMA. To be sure,
MCL 15.263(2) mandates that “decisions of a public body must be made at a meeting open to the
public.” The Commission in this case decided to appoint plaintiff Hambley as health officer at a
meeting open to the public on December 13, 2022. The 2022 Resolution simply memorialized the
decision the Commission made at that open meeting.

        To support their OMA argument, defendants rely on Lockwood v Ellington Twp, 323 Mich
App 392; 917 NW2d 413 (2018), where we explained that “if an action taken at a meeting held in
violation of OMA is not reenacted, it is not valid, and it has no force or effect.” Id. at 405. Here,
in contrast, defendants have not demonstrated that any meeting was held in violation of the OMA.
To the contrary, the Commission meeting held on December 13, 2022, did not violate the OMA,
and the subsequent signing of the 2022 Resolution accurately memorializing the motion passed at
that meeting likewise did not violate the OMA. Thus, neither the OMA nor any Michigan statute
requires us to dispense with the presumption in the OMA that the decision of the Commission on
December 13, 2022, “was adopted in compliance with the requirements of the” OMA. See MCL
15.270(1). Consequently, we must affirm the trial court’s decision on summary disposition under
MCR 2.116(I)(2) that plaintiff Hambley is the duly appointed health officer of Ottawa County.

                                     B. INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

        The trial court issued an injunctive order on April 19, 2023, stating: “[d]efendants and their
agents ARE ENJOINED AND PREVENTED from taking any action to remove [p]laintiff Adeline
Hambley from the position of Health Officer of Ottawa County until such time as the parties are
heard further on this matter[.]” Defendants insist that the trial court erred in issuing that sweeping
preliminary injunction. Although we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when
it decided to afford Hambley injunctive relief, we hold that the scope of the preliminary injunction,
which does not permit the Commission to terminate Hambley under MCL 46.11(n), constitutes an
abuse of discretion because it deprives the Commission of authority granted to it by Michigan law.

        In analyzing plaintiff Hambley’s request for injunctive relief, the trial court identified four
factors that should be considered: (1) plaintiff’s likelihood of success on the merits; (2) the danger
that plaintiff will suffer irreparable harm if an injunction is not issued; (3) the balance of harms to

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the competing party in the presence or absence of injunctive relief; and (4) the harm to the public
interest if an injunction is issued. Davis, 296 Mich App at 613. Based on MCL 46.11(n), the trial
court noted that a duly appointed county health officer may only be terminated by the Commission
if the health officer is “either incompetent or engaging in misconduct or neglect of duty.” Although
that observation captures the essence of the statute, the language of MCL 46.11(n) prescribes those
limits in a grant of authority to the Commission that states as follows:

       A county board of commissioners, at a lawfully held meeting, may . . . remove an
       officer or agent appointed by the board if, in the board’s opinion, the officer or
       agent is incompetent to execute properly the duties of the office or if, on charges
       and evidence, the board is satisfied that the officer or agent is guilty of official
       misconduct, or habitual or willful neglect of duty, and if the misconduct or neglect
       is a sufficient cause for removal.

Because the trial court ruled (and we have affirmed) that Hambley was appointed as health officer
for Ottawa County by the Commission, she has clearly prevailed on her claim for declaratory relief,
so her likelihood of success on the merits is absolute. But we must consider the other three factors
that bear upon the propriety of the trial court’s injunctive order.

        The likelihood of harm to plaintiff Hambley absent injunctive relief cannot be gainsaid on
the record before us. As the trial court observed, the newly constituted “Board’s actions in its first
meeting, by calling [p]laintiff ‘interim’ and by appearing to hire another individual, indicate they
are likely taking adverse action against her.” Losing her job manifestly would be financially and
professionally catastrophic for Hambley. In contrast, the likely harm to defendants if an injunction
remains in place is minimal if Hambley is a qualified, competent health officer. Thus, the second
and third factors both militate in favor of some injunctive relief to protect Hambley as this litigation
unfolds. Likewise, the public interest is well-served by a preliminary injunction that keeps in place
a qualified, competent health officer such as Hambley during the pendency of this case.

        But if plaintiff Hambley proves to be “incompetent[,]” or “guilty of official misconduct, or
habitual or willful neglect of duty,” as contemplated by MCL 46.11(n), then the second, third, and
fourth factors in the analysis of injunctive relief all weigh against a sweeping injunction that leaves
her in place as the health officer for Ottawa County. Moreover, the preliminary injunction put in
place by the trial court, which flatly prohibits defendants from “taking any action to remove” her
from the position of health officer, strips the Commission of removal powers expressly granted by
Michigan law in MCL 46.11(n). Thus, the trial court’s preliminary injunction constitutes an abuse
of discretion insofar as it prevents the Commission from exercising its statutory authority under
MCL 46.11(n). Therefore, we reaffirm the ruling in our order issued on June 6, 2023, that “vacates
the April 19, 2023 order to the extent that it prohibits the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
from taking action allowed by MCL 46.11(n) to remove plaintiff-appellee as the health officer for
Ottawa County.” We affirm the trial court’s injunctive order in all other respects because nothing
other than the prohibition against exercising the authority granted under MCL 46.11(n) constitutes
an abuse of discretion by the trial court.

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        Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further proceedings.2 We do not retain
jurisdiction.

                                                              /s/ Christopher P. Yates
                                                              /s/ Michelle M. Rick
                                                              /s/ Douglas B. Shapiro

2
  In our order issued on June 6, 2023, we stayed the “trial court proceedings . . . pending resolution
of this appeal or further order of this Court.” Having resolved all issues on which we granted leave
to appeal, we hereby lift that stay and authorize the trial court to resume proceedings in this case.

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