Opinion
SC 158620 COA 337330
01-26-2022
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LARRY JOVON ADAMS, Defendant-Appellee.
Saginaw CC: 98-015095-FH
Bridget M. McCormack, Chief Justice Brian K. Zahra David F. Viviano Richard H. Bernstein Elizabeth T. Clement Megan K. Cavanagh Elizabeth M. Welch, Justices
ORDER
By order of May 1, 2020, the application for leave to appeal the October 2, 2018 judgment of the Court of Appeals was held in abeyance pending the decision in People v Washington (Docket No. 160707). On order of the Court, the case having been decided on July 29, 2021, __Mich__(2021), the application is again considered. Pursuant to MCR 7.305(H)(1), in lieu of granting leave to appeal, we REVERSE the Court of Appeals judgment that violation of the notice requirement in MCL 769.13(1) deprived the trial court of subject-matter jurisdiction to apply the habitual offender sentencing enhancement. Subject-matter jurisdiction "concerns a court's authority to hear and determine a case" and "is dependent on the character or class of the case pending," not the particular facts of the case. Washington, __ Mich at__; slip op at 8. Circuit courts "unquestionably have jurisdiction over felony cases," such as the present case. People v Lown, 488 Mich. 242, 268 (2011). While statutes can divest a court of subject-matter jurisdiction, People v Veling, 443 Mich. 23, 32 (1993), nothing in MCL 769.13 purports to do so. It does not address classes of case or contain any language relating to subject-matter jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals erred in reaching the contrary conclusion. We therefore REINSTATE the Saginaw Circuit Court's September 2, 2016 order denying the defendant's motion for post-appellate relief pursuant to MCR 6.504(B)(2).