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stating that even after a Supreme Court opinion "has been overruled in part, its holdings left untouched remain binding precedent" and that the Court of Appeals remains bound by those decisions until they have been "clearly … overruled or superseded …."
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Docket No. 158069 Docket No. 158304 Calendar No. 1
06-04-2021
ESTATE OF Brendon PEARCE, BY Lynn PEARCE, Personal Representative, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. EATON COUNTY ROAD COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellee, and Estate of Melissa Sue Musser, by Lawrence Benton, Personal Representative, and Patricia Jane Musser, Defendants. Tim Edward Brugger II, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Midland County Board of Road Commissioners, Defendant-Appellant.
Collison & Collison, Saginaw (by Joseph T. Collison ) for the estate of Brendon Pearce. Gray, Sowle, Iacco & Richards, PC (by Patrick A. Richards ) for Tim E. Brugger II. Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge, Grand Rapids (by Jon D. Vander Ploeg, D. Adam Tountas, and Jonathan B. Koch ) for the Eaton County Road Commission and the Midland County Board of Road Commissioners. Mark Granzotto, PC, Royal Oak (by Mark Granzotto ) and Nolan & Shafer, PLC, Muskegon (by David P. Shafer ) for Scott Crouch, amicus curiae.
Collison & Collison, Saginaw (by Joseph T. Collison ) for the estate of Brendon Pearce.
Gray, Sowle, Iacco & Richards, PC (by Patrick A. Richards ) for Tim E. Brugger II.
Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge, Grand Rapids (by Jon D. Vander Ploeg, D. Adam Tountas, and Jonathan B. Koch ) for the Eaton County Road Commission and the Midland County Board of Road Commissioners.
Mark Granzotto, PC, Royal Oak (by Mark Granzotto ) and Nolan & Shafer, PLC, Muskegon (by David P. Shafer ) for Scott Crouch, amicus curiae.
BEFORE THE ENTIRE BENCH (except Welch, J.)
McCormack, C.J.
In these consolidated cases, we consider whether the Court of Appeals correctly decided Streng v. Bd. of Mackinac Co. Rd. Comm'rs , 315 Mich. App. 449, 890 N.W.2d 680 (2016), and, if so, whether it should apply retroactively to all cases pending on appeal. In Streng , the Court of Appeals concluded that the presuit-notice requirements in the County Road Law, MCL 224.1 et seq. , apply when a plaintiff sues a county road commission under the "highway exception" to the governmental tort liability act (GTLA), MCL 691.1401 et seq. We hold that Streng was wrongly decided because in Brown v. Manistee Co. Rd. Comm. , 452 Mich. 354, 550 N.W.2d 215 (1996), this Court decided that the GTLA's notice provisions control, and we have not overruled that holding.
The Streng panel erred by failing to follow Brown . We therefore overrule Streng , vacate the decisions of the Court of Appeals, and remand these cases to the respective circuit courts for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
One hundred and ten days after plaintiff Tim Brugger was injured in an automobile accident, he served on the Midland County Board of Road Commissioners a notice of his intent to sue. Fewer than 60 days after Brendon Pearce was killed in an automobile accident, his mother, Lynn Pearce, acting as the personal representative of Brendon's estate, served on the Eaton County Road Commission a "Notice to Eaton County of Fatal Injuries due to Defective Highway." Both Brugger's and Pearce's notices complied with the GTLA, which requires people making claims under the highway exception to give notice of the alleged injury and defective highway within 120 days of the injury. MCL 691.1404(1). But neither notice was adequate under the County Road Law, because Brugger's notice was filed more than 60 days after the accident and Pearce did not serve her notice on the Eaton County Clerk. See MCL 224.21(3) (providing that "a board of county road commissioners is not liable for damages ... unless the person serves or causes to be served within 60 days after the occurrence of the injury a notice in writing upon the clerk and upon the chairperson of the board of county road commissioners").
While both cases proceeded in the trial courts, the Court of Appeals issued its decision in Streng . The Court of Appeals concluded that the County Road Law's 60-day provision governed the timing and content of a presuit notice directed to a county road commission rather than the GTLA's 120-day provision. Streng , 315 Mich. App. at 462-463, 890 N.W.2d 680.
Following that decision, the Midland County Road Commission relied on Streng to move for summary disposition in Brugger , arguing that Brugger's presuit notice was ineffective because it was not served within 60 days of Brugger's injury. The trial court denied the motion, concluding that Streng should apply prospectively only. In turn, the Eaton County Road Commission moved for summary disposition in Pearce , arguing that Pearce's presuit notice was insufficient because it was not served on the county clerk. The trial court denied that motion and, like the trial court in Brugger , concluded that Streng applied prospectively only. Both defendants appealed in the Court of Appeals the trial courts' denial of their motions for summary disposition.
The Brugger panel held that Streng applied prospectively only. Brugger v. Midland Co. Bd. of Rd. Comm'rs , 324 Mich. App. 307, 316, 920 N.W.2d 388 (2018). But the Pearce panel held that Streng applied retroactively to all cases. Pearce Estate v. Eaton Co. Rd. Comm. , 324 Mich. App. 549, 553, 922 N.W.2d 391 (2018). Both opinions were published.
This Court granted leave to resolve the conflict. Besides asking whether Streng applied retroactively, we asked the parties to brief whether Streng was correctly decided. See Brugger v. Midland Co. Bd. of Rd. Comm'rs , 505 Mich. 1033, 941 N.W.2d 379 (2020). We review these questions de novo. People v. Maxson , 482 Mich. 385, 387, 759 N.W.2d 817 (2008) (whether a court's ruling applies retroactively is a question reviewed de novo); Page v. Klein Tools, Inc. , 461 Mich. 703, 709, 610 N.W.2d 900 (2000) (questions of law are reviewed de novo).
II. THE EVOLUTION OF MICHIGAN'S PRESUIT-NOTICE DOCTRINE
This Court's presuit-notice jurisprudence is the foundation for determining whether the Court of Appeals correctly decided Streng . It is against this backdrop that the Streng panel concluded that it was free to decide which notice provision applied.
A. HOBBS
We begin with Hobbs v. Dep't of State Highway , 398 Mich. 90, 247 N.W.2d 754 (1976). There, the plaintiff failed to file her presuit notice within 120 days as required by the GTLA. Id. at 94, 247 N.W.2d 754. In deciding whether the plaintiff's claim was barred, the Hobbs Court relied on two cases: Reich v. State Hwy. Dep't , 386 Mich. 617, 194 N.W.2d 700 (1972), and Carver v. McKernan , 390 Mich. 96, 211 N.W.2d 24 (1973). In Reich , the Court held that an earlier version of the GTLA's notice provision violated equal-protection guarantees by treating plaintiffs injured by the government differently from plaintiffs injured by private tortfeasors. Reich , 386 Mich. at 623, 194 N.W.2d 700. But Carver —a case involving the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Act—held that a presuit-notice requirement for claims against the government could be constitutional as long as the requirement served a legitimate purpose. Carver , 390 Mich. at 100, 211 N.W.2d 24. Carver observed that preventing prejudice to the government can be a legitimate purpose and held that a claim against the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund could be dismissed on notice grounds only if the government showed that it was prejudiced by the plaintiff's inadequate notice. Id.
The Hobbs Court found Carver ’s rationale to be "equally applicable" to cases brought under the GTLA and concluded that actual prejudice to the government because of an untimely notice was "the only legitimate purpose" the Court could identify to uphold the GTLA's notice requirement. Hobbs , 398 Mich. at 96, 247 N.W.2d 754. Thus, Hobbs held, an untimely notice would not bar a claim under the GTLA absent a showing of actual prejudice. Id. B. BROWN
Twenty years later, this Court revisited Hobbs in Brown v. Manistee Co. Rd. Comm. , 452 Mich. 354, 550 N.W.2d 215 (1996). In Brown , the plaintiff alleged that he was injured on a county road when he tried to avoid a pothole. Sixty-one days after the accident, the Manistee County Road Commission resurfaced the road, including the alleged pothole. Without filing a presuit notice, the plaintiff sued the road commission almost two years later. The road commission moved for summary disposition, arguing that the plaintiff violated the County Road Law's 60-day notice requirement set forth in MCL 224.21(3). Id. at 357, 550 N.W.2d 215. The trial court agreed, holding that MCL 224.21(3) governed and that the road commission was prejudiced by the plaintiff's failure to file a timely notice. Id. This seemed to be the type of prejudice the Hobbs Court envisioned; if the plaintiff had notified the road commission of his intent to sue during the 60-day period, the commission would have been able to preserve evidence about the pothole before it resurfaced the road.
The Court of Appeals affirmed. Brown v. Manistee Co. Rd. Comm. , 204 Mich. App. 574, 516 N.W.2d 121 (1994). First, the majority held that the County Road Law's notice provision controlled because it exclusively governed boards of county road commissioners. Id. at 577, 516 N.W.2d 121. Next, the majority, citing Hobbs , held that the road commission had been prejudiced by the lack of notice and thus the plaintiff's case had been properly dismissed. Id. at 577-578, 516 N.W.2d 121.
This Court granted leave to appeal to decide these questions:
1. Whether the plaintiff's action was governed by the County Road Law's 60-day notice provision, MCL 224.21(3), or the GTLA's 120-day notice provision, MCL 691.1404(1) ;
2. Whether Hobbs ’s rule requiring a showing of prejudice should be overruled; and
3. If Hobbs remained good law, whether there was a showing of prejudice in this case. Brown , 452 Mich. at 356, 550 N.W.2d 215.
To the first question, Brown held that the GTLA's 120-day notice provision applies in a negligence action against a county road commission. Id. Because the Legislature intended "to provide uniform liability and immunity to both state and local governmental agencies," the Brown Court believed that having two distinct notice periods in two statutes was suspect. Id. at 361, 550 N.W.2d 215 (quotation marks and citation omitted). "By providing different notice periods," the Court explained, "the legislation divides injured persons into two classes: those injured on a defective road controlled by a county road commission and those injured on a defective road controlled by other governmental agencies." Id.
The Court analyzed the two statutes under rational-basis review and cited Hobbs to acknowledge that the only purpose it articulated for a notice requirement was to prevent prejudice to the government. Id. at 362, 550 N.W.2d 215. The Court concluded that it was "unable to perceive a rational basis for the county road commission statute to mandate notice of the claim within sixty days." Id. at 363, 550 N.W.2d 215. "Accordingly," the Court held, "the distinct sixty-day notice provision required for claims against a county road commission is unconstitutional." Id. at 363-364, 550 N.W.2d 215. But the Court also held that the GTLA's 120-day notice provision was reasonable and, therefore, constitutional because it "provide[d] a claimant sufficient time to serve the governmental agency with notice of an alleged injury and corresponding defect." Id. at 364, 550 N.W.2d 215. Finally, Brown declined to overrule Hobbs and reaffirmed its requirement that the government show actual prejudice before a statutory presuit-notice provision would be enforced. Id. at 365, 550 N.W.2d 215. Justice RILEY dissented. But while she would have overruled Hobbs ’s prejudice requirement because she believed the Court lacked the power to engraft it onto the GTLA, she agreed "with the majority's conclusion that plaintiff must comply with the 120-day notice requirement[.]" Brown , 452 Mich. at 369, 550 N.W.2d 215 ( RILEY , J., dissenting).
C. ROWLAND
In Rowland v. Washtenaw Co. Rd. Comm. , 477 Mich. 197, 731 N.W.2d 41 (2007), this Court once again granted leave to appeal to consider overruling Hobbs . There, the plaintiff served the county road commission with notice of her claim 140 days after her accident. The trial court denied the road commission's motion for summary disposition, finding that there was a genuine issue of material fact about whether the road commission was prejudiced by the untimely notice, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Rowland v. Washtenaw Co. Rd. Comm. , unpublished per curiam opinion of the Court of Appeals, issued December 13, 2005 (Docket No. 253210), 2005 WL 3416133.
This Court's grant order made clear that it had Hobbs in its sights; it directed the parties to brief whether Hobbs and Brown should be overruled and, if so, whether a decision doing so would apply retroactively. Rowland v. Washtenaw Co. Rd. Comm. , 474 Mich. 1099, 1099-1100, 711 N.W.2d 376 (2006).
We answered both questions yes. Rowland , 477 Mich. at 200, 731 N.W.2d 41. Because we held that MCL 691.1404(1) should be enforced as written, we overruled Hobbs ’s and Brown ’s prejudice engraftment. Id. We concluded that Hobbs and Brown were "wrongly decided and poorly reasoned" because they presumed that governmental notice requirements were unconstitutional if the government was not prejudiced by an untimely notice. Id. at 210, 731 N.W.2d 41 (capitalization omitted). This reasoning, we explained, was indefensible and could not be saved by the Hobbs Court's belief that the " ‘only legitimate purpose’ " of the GTLA's notice provision was to protect the government from being prejudiced. Id ., quoting Hobbs , 398 Mich. at 96, 247 N.W.2d 754.
Rowland held that the GTLA's notice requirement was constitutional and enforceable. Rowland , 477 Mich. at 213, 731 N.W.2d 41. After describing Hobbs and Brown as remarkable examples of "judicial usurpation of legislative power," the Court announced that "[n]othing can be saved from Hobbs and Brown because the analysis they employ is deeply flawed." Id. at 213-214, 731 N.W.2d 41. As a result, we held that " MCL 691.1404 is straightforward, clear, unambiguous, and not constitutionally suspect. Accordingly, we conclude that it must be enforced as written." Id. at 219, 731 N.W.2d 41. That meant that a plaintiff suing a county road commission had to serve a notice within 120 days that identified the location and nature of the highway defect, the injury suffered, and the known witnesses to the accident. Id. The GTLA itself does not require that the government demonstrate prejudice to enforce its notice provision. Id. Thus, we explained, "the notice provision is not satisfied if notice is served more than 120 days after the accident even if there is no prejudice. " Id.
D. STRENG
Nine years after Rowland , the Court of Appeals was asked to decide whether the County Road Law or the GTLA controlled presuit notices in a negligence action filed against a county road commission. Streng , 315 Mich. App. 449, 890 N.W.2d 680. The Streng panel approached the question as if it were working off a blank slate. It explained that Rowland "repudiated the entirety of" Hobbs and Brown and that Brown was the only precedential case that "substantively considered the potential conflicts between [the County Road Law] and the GTLA." Id. at 459-460, 890 N.W.2d 680. The panel acknowledged that Rowland did not address the County Road Law, noting correctly that Rowland "expressed neither approval nor disapproval" with the application in Hobbs and Brown of the GTLA's notice requirement and, instead, "simply focused on the lack of statutory language in MCL 691.1404 allowing exceptions to the time limit." Id. at 459-460, 890 N.W.2d 680.
The Streng panel conducted its own analysis about which notice provision would govern and held that the County Road Law's 60-day notice deadline applied. Id. at 463, 890 N.W.2d 680. "In sum," the panel concluded, "appellate courts appear to have overlooked the time limit, substantive requirements, and service procedures required by MCL 224.21(3) when the responsible body is a county road commission." Id.
III. ANALYSIS
Streng ’s fundamental flaw was its conclusion that Rowland had done away with Brown in its entirety. This error is understandable given Rowland ’s declaration that "[n]othing can be saved from Hobbs and Brown because the analysis they employ is deeply flawed." Rowland , 477 Mich. at 214, 731 N.W.2d 41.
But "[t]he Court of Appeals is bound to follow decisions by this Court except where those decisions have clearly been overruled or superseded ...." Associated Builders & Contractors v. Lansing , 499 Mich. 177, 191, 880 N.W.2d 765 (2016). Even after a decision has been overruled in part, its holdings left untouched remain binding precedent. In fact, courts often cite decisions for still valid legal principles even though the decision has been overruled in part on other grounds. See, e.g., McDonald v. Farm Bureau Ins. Co. , 480 Mich. 191, 203, 747 N.W.2d 811 (2008) (citing Mich. Millers Mut. Ins. Co. v. Bronson Plating Co. , 445 Mich. 558, 568, 519 N.W.2d 864 (1994), overruled in part on other grounds by Wilkie v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co. , 469 Mich. 41, 63, 664 N.W.2d 776 (2003), for the proposition that "legal action" is synonymous with "lawsuit"). Despite Rowland ’s broad swipe at Brown , it did not clearly overrule Brown ’s holding on the competing notice provisions of the County Road Law and the GTLA. And whether the Rowland Court would have overruled this holding, had it been properly presented with the opportunity to do so, is neither here nor there.
The question Rowland answered was whether courts should continue to apply Hobbs ’s prejudice requirement in negligence cases against the government. The grant order did not mention the County Road Law at all, even though the case concerned a county road accident; instead, the Court asked the parties to brief whether Hobbs ’s prejudice requirement should be overruled. Rowland , 474 Mich. at 1099-1100, 711 N.W.2d 376. And the opening sentence of the opinion confirms the scope of the Court's work: "The issue in this case is whether a notice provision applicable to the defective highway exception to governmental immunity, MCL 691.1404(1), should be enforced as written." Rowland , 477 Mich. at 200, 731 N.W.2d 41. Rowland ’s one-sentence summary of Brown focused exclusively on Brown ’s decision not to overrule Hobbs . Id. at 209, 731 N.W.2d 41. Not surprisingly therefore, Rowland never addressed MCL 224.21(3) or Brown ’s holding that the GTLA's notice provision governed rather than the County Road Law's. Rowland ’s reasoning for overruling Brown is more evidence that it did not displace Brown ’s holding that the GTLA's notice provision applied: "The simple fact is that Hobbs and Brown were wrong because they were built on an argument that governmental immunity notice statutes are unconstitutional or at least sometimes unconstitutional if the government was not prejudiced." Id. at 210, 731 N.W.2d 41. The Court considered and overruled only Brown ’s holding affirming Hobbs , and therefore necessarily left Brown ’s first holding—that the GTLA governed because the County Road Law's notice provision was unconstitutional—in place.
Because the issue before the Rowland Court was whether to overrule Hobbs ’s prejudice requirement, any statements Rowland made that were unnecessary to decide that question were nonbinding obiter dicta. Unlike holdings, "[o]biter dicta are not binding precedent. Instead, they are statements that are unnecessary to determine the case at hand and, thus, lack the force of an adjudication." People v. Peltola , 489 Mich. 174, 190 n. 32, 803 N.W.2d 140 (2011) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Weighing in on the validity of Brown ’s first holding was unnecessary for the Rowland Court to dispose of Hobbs ’s prejudice engraftment. The only reason Brown was at issue at all in Rowland was because it reaffirmed Hobbs . Thus, Rowland ’s declaration that "[n]othing can be saved from Hobbs and Brown because the analysis they employ is deeply flawed" is nonbinding obiter dictum. Rowland , 477 Mich. at 214, 731 N.W.2d 41.
And there is more evidence that Rowland did not wipe Brown ’s slate clean. Rowland involved an action against a county road commission, and it held that the GTLA's 120-day notice provision applied. It concluded that "notice of the injuries sustained and of the highway defect must be served on the governmental agency within 120 days of the injury. " Id. at 200, 731 N.W.2d 41 (emphasis added). Throughout the opinion, the Rowland Court emphasized that the GTLA's notice period controlled. For example, the Rowland majority observed that "in Brown the road commission was prejudiced because it, unaware that there had been an accident, repaved the road where the accident happened before the 120-day notice period expired." Id. at 219 n. 16, 731 N.W.2d 41. And it called the GTLA the "controlling legal authority." Id. at 222, 731 N.W.2d 41. Finally, Rowland , 477 Mich. at 210-211, 731 N.W.2d 41, quoted Justice RILEY ’s dissent in Brown approvingly without challenging her explicit agreement "with the majority's conclusion that plaintiff must comply with the 120-day notice requirement," Brown , 452 Mich. at 369, 550 N.W.2d 215 ( RILEY , J., dissenting). Any reader (with or without a law degree) would have to presume that the GTLA's 120-day notice requirement continued to control.
The Streng panel should have followed this Court's decision in Brown and applied the GTLA's presuit requirements, not the requirements provided in the County Road Law; it could not decide this question for itself. Brown ’s holding on that point survived this Court's decision in Rowland , and it was therefore binding on the Streng panel. Whether Brown correctly decided this question is for this Court to decide. But because it was not raised by the parties here, we save it for another day. IV. CONCLUSION
We overrule Streng ’s holding that the County Road Law's notice provision governs in negligence actions against county road commissions rather than the GTLA's. Therefore, we need not address the matter of Streng ’s retroactive application. We vacate the decisions of the Court of Appeals and remand these cases to the respective circuit courts for further proceedings.
Viviano, Bernstein, Clement, and Cavanagh, JJ., concurred with McCormack, C.J.
Zahra, J. (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. It should not be that one needs a law degree to understand the opinions of this Court. In Rowland v. Washtenaw Co. Rd. Comm. , this Court expressly overruled its prior decision in Brown v. Manistee Co. Rd. Comm . In doing so, the Court held that "[n]othing can be saved from ... Brown because the analysis [it] employ[s] is deeply flawed." This holding is clear, concise, and unambiguous. I surmise that virtually all people of ordinary intelligence who read these words would conclude that nothing from the Brown opinion remains good law. Yet today the majority concludes that when this Court proclaimed that "nothing can be saved from ... Brown ," it simply didn't mean it. Calling this clear, concise, and unambiguous holding obiter dictum, the Court today proclaims that aspects of Brown have somehow survived. Because the Court "save[s] ... for another day" its view of whether Brown was rightly decided, I offer no opinion on its correctness. But on the question of whether any aspect of Brown is still good law, Rowland resoundingly answers that it is not.
Rowland v. Washtenaw Co. Rd. Comm. , 477 Mich. 197, 731 N.W.2d 41 (2007).
Brown v. Manistee Co. Rd. Comm. , 452 Mich. 354, 550 N.W.2d 215 (1996).
Rowland , 477 Mich. at 214, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Michigan has two presuit notice statutes that, by their terms, apply to accidents involving allegedly defective highways maintained by a county government. The governmental tort liability act (GTLA), MCL 691.1401 et seq. , requires notice to any governmental defendant within 120 days of an injury, MCL 691.1404(1), while the County Road Law, MCL 224.1 et seq. , requires notice to a county road commission within 60 days after the occurrence of the injury involving a highway within its jurisdiction, MCL 224.21(3). This Court's Brown opinion set forth two pertinent holdings. First, the Court held that there was no rational basis to require that county road commissions receive notice within 60 days if 120 days is adequate notice for other units of government. Second, the Court reaffirmed past precedent holding that the only legitimate purpose for presuit notice requirements of the sort at issue in Brown is to prevent prejudice to the defendant, meaning that the requirements are unenforceable unless the government can show it was prejudiced by the failure to provide timely notice. The majority holds that Rowland only overruled this second holding, leaving the first holding intact. Thus, the majority reasons, the Court of Appeals was not free to deviate from that aspect of Brown in Streng v. Bd. of Mackinac Co. Rd. Comm'rs . But the majority's holding obscures the fact that both of Brown ’s holdings were premised on the same skepticism toward notice requirements that Rowland discarded. Rowland provided a detailed "history of this Court's caselaw involving notice statutes" that illustrated the common themes in both of Brown ’s holdings. Over time, this Court moved from enforcing governmental-immunity notice provisions as plainly written, to engrafting upon such statutes legal analysis unsupported by a traditional understanding of Michigan's principles of constitutional interpretation and statutory construction. Rowland returned the Court to its original understanding that governmental-immunity notice provisions should be enforced as plainly written.
Streng v. Bd. of Mackinac Co. Rd. Comm'rs , 315 Mich. App. 449, 890 N.W.2d 680 (2016).
Rowland , 477 Mich. at 205-210, 731 N.W.2d 41 (capitalization omitted).
"From its earliest years this Court, evidently detecting no constitutional impediments, ... enforced governmental immunity mandatory notice provisions according to their plain language." This began to change in 1970, when in Grubaugh v. St. Johns , this Court addressed whether the 60-day notice requirement of § 8 of Chapter 22 of the general highway statute (the predecessor of the GTLA's highway exception), was constitutionally infirm as applied to incapacitated plaintiffs. Grubaugh reasoned that "[t]o take away [an incapacitated plaintiff's] cause of action on the sixty-first day because he could not meet the notice provisions of the act would deprive him of a vested right of action without due process of law." Therefore, this Court held "that the notice provisions of § 8 of chapter 22 of the general highway statute are constitutionally void as depriving claimant of due process of law."
Id. at 205, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Grubaugh v. St. Johns , 384 Mich. 165, 180 N.W.2d 778 (1970).
1948 CL 242.8.
Id. at 167, 180 N.W.2d 778.
Id. at 175, 180 N.W.2d 778.
Id. at 176, 180 N.W.2d 778.
Two years later in Reich v. State Hwy. Dep't , this Court determined that the 60-day provision newly enacted in the GTLA was unconstitutional as applied to minors. Relying on the reasoning in Grubaugh , the Court held that the notice requirement violated the due-process rights of minors. Further, the Court held that the notice provision violated the plaintiffs' right to equal protection of the laws because it treated a class of plaintiffs who filed a negligence claim against the government differently than it treated plaintiffs filing a cause of action against a private tortfeasor. Reich further explained that the "diverse treatment of members of a class along the lines of governmental or private tortfeasors bears no reasonable relationship under today's circumstances to the recognized purpose of the act. It constitutes an arbitrary and unreasonable variance in the treatment of both portions of one natural class and is, therefore, barred by the constitutional guarantees of equal protection." This Court in Rowland quoted Justice BRENNAN 's dissent in Reich , in which he identified his concerns with the majority's equal-protection analysis:
Reich v. State Hwy. Dep't , 386 Mich. 617, 194 N.W.2d 700 (1972).
Id. at 623-624, 194 N.W.2d 700.
Id. at 623, 194 N.W.2d 700.
The legislature has declared governmental immunity from tort liability. The legislature has provided specific exceptions to that standard. The legislature has imposed specific conditions upon the exceptional instances of governmental liability. The legislature has the power to make these laws. This Court far exceeds
its proper function when it declares this enactment unfair and unenforceable.[ ]
Id. at 626, 194 N.W.2d 700 ( Brennan , J., dissenting); see Rowland , 477 Mich. at 207, 731 N.W.2d 41 (quoting Reich , 386 Mich. at 626, 194 N.W.2d 700 ) ( Brennan , J., dissenting).
Although the statute at issue in Reich was the GTLA, in Crook v. Patterson , the Court of Appeals recognized that Reich ’s reasoning applied with equal force to the County Road Law, holding that the 60-day notice provision in MCL 224.21(3) was also unconstitutional.
Crook v. Patterson , 42 Mich. App. 241, 241, 201 N.W.2d 676 (1972).
Thereafter, the GTLA was amended to require notice within 120 days, rather than within 60, but the County Road Law was not so amended. Further, with the increased notice period, the Court apparently thought better of a per se rule invalidating notice requirements. This re-evaluation occurred in two steps. In Carver v. McKernan , the Court examined the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Act, which required that a claimant provide notice within six months of the accrual of the cause of action. As the fund was exclusively a benefits program provided by the government, the case did not present the same circumstance as in Reich of dividing a "natural class" into "subclasses." Nevertheless, Carver acknowledged "that statutes which [sic] limit access to the courts by people seeking redress for wrongs are not looked upon with favor by us." While the Court expressed a willingness to "acquiesce in the enforcement of statutes of limitation when we are not persuaded that they unduly restrict such access," the Court made clear that "we look askance at devices such as notice requirements which have the effect of shortening the period of time set forth in such statutes." The Court concluded that a notice requirement could be enforced only if the government could show it was prejudiced by a lack of timely notice.
MCL 691.1404, as amended by 1970 PA 155.
MCL 691.1404 was amended by 1970 PA 155 before our decision in Reich was issued but after the underlying events of the case. Accordingly, the new 120-day notice provision was inapplicable to the case.
Carver v. McKernan , 390 Mich. 96, 211 N.W.2d 24 (1973).
MCL 257.1101 et seq.
Carver , 390 Mich. at 99, 211 N.W.2d 24.
Id.
Id. at 100, 211 N.W.2d 24.
Thereafter, in Hobbs v. Mich. State Hwy. Dep't , the Court applied the logic of Carver to the GTLA. Applying Carver ’s willingness to " ‘acquiesce in the enforcement of statutes [limiting access to the courts] when we are not persuaded that they unduly restrict such access,’ " the Court held that MCL 691.1404(1) ’s notice requirement was not necessarily unconstitutional. Consistently with Carver , however, the Court said that "actual prejudice to the state due to lack of notice within 120 days is the only legitimate purpose we can posit for this notice provision[.]"
Hobbs v. Dep't of State Hwys. , 398 Mich. 90, 247 N.W.2d 754 (1976).
Id. at 96, 247 N.W.2d 754, quoting Carver , 390 Mich. at 99, 211 N.W.2d 24.
Hobbs , 398 Mich. at 96, 247 N.W.2d 754.
While these cases did not implicate the County Road Law, Brown involved a suit against a county in which the county invoked the 60-day notice requirement of MCL 224.21(3). Thus, this Court in Brown addressed head on whether the 60-day notice provision under MCL 224.21(3) or the 120-day notice provision under MCL 691.1404(1) applied in cases involving county road commissions. The Court also addressed whether the prejudice requirement in Hobbs should be overruled. Brown first recognized the competing provisions under the GTLA and the County Road Law, and retreated to an equal-protection analysis similar to that used in Reich to find the 60-day notice provision of MCL 224.21(3) unconstitutional. The Court explained that "[b]y providing different notice periods, the legislation divides injured persons into two classes: those injured on a defective road controlled by a county road commission and those injured on a defective road controlled by other governmental agencies." The Court believed that the two provisions treated persons of a similar class differently:
Brown , 452 Mich. at 356, 550 N.W.2d 215.
Id.
Id. at 361, 550 N.W.2d 215.
[A] person injured in a county in which there is no county road commission would be required to file notice of the claim within 120 days, whereas an identical person injured in a county that has a county road commission would be required to provide notice within sixty days to the county road commissioner.[ ]
Id. at 363, 550 N.W.2d 215.
The Court concluded, "[D]espite a presumption of constitutionality, we are unable to perceive a rational basis for the county road commission statute to mandate notice of a claim within sixty days." Therefore, Brown held that "the distinct sixty-day notice provision required for claims against a county road commission is unconstitutional." The Brown Court also reaffirmed Hobbs and the prejudice requirement as it related to the 120-notice required under the GTLA, and it held that the road commission was not prejudiced by the defective notice.
Id.
Id. 363-364, 550 N.W.2d 215.
Id. at 365-366, 368-369, 550 N.W.2d 215.
This Court's trend to view with disfavor statutory governmental-immunity notice provisions stopped with Rowland . Rowland reverted back to the more traditional analysis employed for more than 100 years before Grubaugh , Reich , Carver , Hobbs , and Brown ; one that provides deference to the Legislature's lawmaking function. The facts in Rowland were straightforward. There was no dispute that the plaintiff failed to file her notice with the road commission until 140 days after the accident. The defendant invoked MCL 691.1404(1), and the Court concluded that the notice provision passed constitutional muster. The Court explained:
We reject the hybrid constitutionality of the sort Carver , Hobbs , and Brown engrafted onto our law. In reading an "actual prejudice" requirement into the statute, this Court not only usurped the Legislature's power but simultaneously made legislative amendment to make what the Legislature wanted—a notice provision with no prejudice requirement—impossible. Hobbs and Brown are remarkable in the annals of judicial usurpation of legislative power because they not only seized the Legislature's amendment powers, but also made any reversing amendment by the Legislature impossible.[ ]
Rowland , 477 Mich. at 213-214, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Rowland continued even further, overruling entirely, in no uncertain terms, these two decisions: "Nothing can be saved from Hobbs and Brown because the analysis they employ is deeply flawed," and "we are persuaded that [those cases] were wrongly decided." Notably, when Rowland overruled Brown , it repudiated both the specific notion that avoiding prejudice to the government was the only rationale for notice requirements, as well as the general notion that the judiciary may "look askance" at notice statutes. Rowland noted that "legislation invariably involves line drawing and social legislation involving line drawing does not violate equal protection guarantees when it has a ‘rational basis,’ i.e., as long as it is rationally related to a legitimate governmental purpose." The Court upheld the constitutionality of notice requirements without regard to prejudice to the government: " Hobbs and Brown were wrong because they were built on an argument that governmental immunity notice statutes are unconstitutional or at least sometimes unconstitutional if the government was not prejudiced." Brown could not be "rescued by musings to the effect that the justices ‘ "look askance" ’ at devices such as notice requirements[.]" In rejecting the specific notion that avoiding prejudice to the government is the sole rationale for notice requirements, Rowland listed many others—"allowing time for creating [cash] reserves ..., reducing the uncertainty of the extent of future demands, or even ... forc[ing] the claimant to an early choice regarding how to proceed." Rowland also noted that "common sense counsels that inasmuch as the Legislature is not even required to provide a defective highway exception to governmental immunity, it surely has the authority to allow such suits only upon compliance with rational notice limits."
Id. at 214-215, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Id. at 210, 731 N.W.2d 41 (quotation marks and citations omitted).
Id. at 207, 731 N.W.2d 41 (citation omitted).
Id. at 210, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Id. (citations omitted).
Id. at 212, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Id.
This reasoning completely undermined the entirety of Brown ’s analysis. Both of Brown ’s holdings were built upon the specific presumption that the only legitimate rationale for notice requirements was to avoid prejudice to the government, which was an instantiation of Carver ’s general rule of skepticism toward notice requirements. By repudiating both the specific presumption and the general rule, Rowland eliminated both of Brown ’s holdings.
More specifically, Brown acknowledged that MCL 224.21(3) ’s 60-day notice requirement only needed to survive rational-basis review, but based on the premise that avoiding prejudice to the government was the notice requirement's only legitimate purpose, held that there was no rational basis to believe counties needed such prompt notice. Rowland eliminated this premise—in its place, the Court offered numerous additional interests besides preventing prejudice to find a rational basis for a notice requirement. Brown also asserted that there was no legitimate reason to treat claims against county governments differently from claims against other levels of government. But as Rowland made clear, notice laws need not prove their own validity. " ‘It being optional with the legislature whether it would confer upon persons injured a right of action therefor or leave them remediless, it could attach to the right conferred any limitations it chose. ’ " In short, Brown ’s equal-protection and prejudice holdings were inextricably intertwined, and the reasoning employed by the Rowland Court in rejecting Brown ’s analysis of the potential rational legislative purposes of notice provisions applies with equal force to Brown ’s analysis of the competing notice provisions of the County Road Law and the GTLA. It follows that Rowland ’s repudiation of Brown ’s reasoning dismantled Brown ’s holding rejecting the shorter notice period for road commission claims as unconstitutional. Both of Brown ’s holdings are no longer good law, and the Court of Appeals in Streng was therefore permitted to apply MCL 224.21.
Id. , quoting Moulter v. Grand Rapids , 155 Mich. 165, 168-169, 118 N.W. 919 (1908) (emphasis added).
Notably, the bulk of Brown ’s "rational basis" analysis supported its equal-protection holding, not its prejudice holding. In fact, Brown ’s analysis of the prejudice issue did not contain an in-depth rational-basis analysis but, instead, relied largely on stare decisis and legislative acquiescence in upholding Hobbs . Consequently, in rejecting Brown ’s rational-basis reasoning, the Rowland Court would not have considered its analysis as pertaining only to Brown ’s prejudice holding. Indeed, there are additional indications in the Rowland opinion that the Court understood that it was opining on much more than prejudice. For example, the Rowland majority explicitly disagreed with the majority's analysis in Reich , which is notable because Reich was an equal-protection decision in which the majority concluded that the 60-day notice provision "clearly violates the equal protection guarantees of our state and Federal Constitutions." Reich , 386 Mich. at 623, 194 N.W.2d 700. Reich did not refer to a prejudice requirement because that concept was developed years later in our caselaw. Yet the Rowland majority called Reich ’s equal-protection analysis "simply incorrect," elaborating that "[p]rivate and public tortfeasors can be treated differently in the fashion they have been treated here by the Legislature. It does not offend the constitution to do so because with economic or social regulation legislation, such as this statute, there can be distinctions made between classes of persons if there is a rational basis to do so." Rowland , 477 Mich. at 207, 731 N.W.2d 41. Rowland then proceeded to quote Justice Brennan ’s dissent in Reich , which the Rowland majority described as "pithily" pointing out the problems with the Reich majority's analysis. Id ., citing Reich , 386 Mich. at 626, 194 N.W.2d 700 ( Brennan , J., dissenting). If Rowland intended to address only Brown ’s prejudice requirement, it need not have explicitly rejected the Court's equal-protection reasoning in Reich . Moreover, footnote 9 of the Rowland opinion notes that the "vast majority of jurisdictions that have considered such a constitutional challenge [have] concluded that notice-of-claim and statute-of-limitations rules placed on persons bringing tort actions against governmental entities are rationally related to reasonable legislative purposes and thus do not violate equal protection. " Rowland , 477 Mich. at 213 n. 9, 731 N.W.2d 41 (emphasis added). The Rowland Court then explicitly "agree[d] with the majority rule." Id. At the very least, these statements suggest that the Rowland majority did not view its analysis as speaking only to the prejudice requirement.
The majority notes that Rowland discussed only the GTLA without mentioning the County Road Law. But this is not surprising because MCL 691.1404(1) was the only statute the defendant invoked, and while that defendant would apparently have also been eligible to rely upon the County Road Law, defendant did not do so. Defendant's litigation strategies are not a legitimate basis to cabin our Rowland holding to say less than it did. The reasoning of Rowland —its repudiation of Carver ’s skepticism toward notice laws—is equally applicable to Brown ’s treatment of the County Road Law and the GTLA. It is not appropriate to write off Rowland ’s repudiation of Carver ’s skepticism toward notice requirements as mere obiter dictum—it is, rather, the essence of our Rowland opinion, which said the Carver principle "ha[d] no claim to being defensible constitutional theory," was "entirely indefensible," and "usurped the Legislature's power ...." The majority also notes that Rowland cited with approval Justice RILEY ’s partial dissent in Brown and observes that Justice RILEY concurred as to the portion of Brown that held that MCL 224.21(3) is unconstitutional. But the fact that there was language from her partial dissent that the Rowland majority thought was well-put does not mean it adopted her position in toto.
Id. at 210, 211, 213, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Although not dispositive, I also find it telling how novel the majority's conclusions are to the other jurists who are implicated in this proceeding. Including Streng and the instant cases, eight Court of Appeals judges on three different panels have reviewed these issues and none of them concluded that Rowland had not overruled Brown —including the judge who argued that Streng was wrongly decided. See Brugger v. Midland Co. Bd. of Rd. Comm'rs , 324 Mich. App. 307, 318-321, 920 N.W.2d 388 (2019) ( Shapiro , P.J., concurring) (arguing that under Apsey v. Mem. Hosp. , 477 Mich. 120, 730 N.W.2d 695 (2007), the plaintiffs should have had the option of proceeding under either MCL 691.1404(1) or MCL 224.21(3) ). Indeed, even one of the plaintiffs here, the estate of Brendon Pearce, in this Court forthrightly concedes that Streng was rightly decided—a concession that has contained within it an acknowledgment that Rowland overruled Brown .
In sum, within the four corners of Rowland , this Court said in no uncertain terms that "[n]othing can be saved from Hobbs and Brown because the analysis they employ is deeply flawed." This expressly communicated that Brown had been totally eradicated above and beyond its consequences for the GTLA. The majority erroneously writes this off as mere obiter dictum. But Brown ’s holding as to the validity of MCL 224.21(3) was bound up with Carver ’s requirement that special justifications must be provided to enforce notice requirements. Rowland repudiated Brown and Carver , holding that notice requirements are to be enforced as written, a holding that applies to the entirety of Brown . The current state of our caselaw is clear and provides no basis to overrule Streng . For these reasons, I dissent.
Rowland , 477 Mich. at 214, 731 N.W.2d 41.
Welch, J., did not participate in the disposition of these cases because the Court considered them before she assumed office.