Colucci v. McMillin
| Decision Date | 29 May 2003 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 236848. |
| Citation | 662 N.W.2d 87,256 Mich. App. 88 |
| Parties | John N. COLUCCI and Laura M. Colucci, a/k/a Laura M. Gould, Co-Personal Representatives of the Estate of Lloyd Clinton Cash, III, Deceased, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Michael Bradley McMILLIN, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Michael Brian McMillin, Deceased, Defendants/Cross-Plaintiffs-Appellees, and Jackson County Road Commission, Defendant/Cross-Defendant-Appellant, and Charles Walz, Nels Peter Swanson, and Aggregate Industries, a/k/a Bill Smith Sand & Gravel, Inc., Defendants/Cross-Defendants. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Worsham, Victor & Ahmad, P.C. (by Richard B. Worsham), Southfield, for the plaintiffs.
Smith, Haughey, Rice & Roegge (by Jon D. Vander Ploeg and William L. Henn), Grand Rapids, for the Jackson County Road Commission and Charles Walz.
Williams, Williams, Ruby & Plunkett, P.C. (by John W. Griffen, Jr., and Wayne Walker), Birmingham, for Michael Bradley McMillin, individually, and as personal representative of the estate of Michael Brian McMillin, deceased.
Before: SAAD, P.J., and ZAHRA and SCHUETTE, JJ.
Defendant/cross-defendant Jackson County Road Commission appeals by leave granted an order denying its motion for a change of venue. We reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
This lawsuit arises from a tragic accident involving an all-terrain vehicle in which the driver, Michael Brian McMillin, and the sole passenger, Lloyd Clinton Cash III, were killed. The accident occurred in Jackson County on July 25, 2000, when the vehicle struck a cable stretched across a roadway. Both decedents were residents of Wayne County, as are the personal representatives of their estates. The personal representatives of the estate of Cash filed a complaint in the Wayne Circuit Court against Michael Bradley McMillin, individually, and as the personal representative of the estate of Michael Brian McMillin (the McMillin defendants).
The McMillin defendants filed a notice, pursuant to MCR 2.112(K), that nonparties may have caused or contributed to plaintiffs' damages, naming the Jackson County Road Commission, Charles Walz "and/or other individuals employed by the Jackson County Road Commission," "Officer Peter Swansen [sic] of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources," and "[a]s yet unknown operators of the gravel mining operation in the area of the accident site, Aggregate Industries and/or Bill Smith Sand & Gravel, Inc." The McMillin defendants also moved for a change of venue, noting that: (1) they had filed a lawsuit against the Jackson County Road Commission in the Jackson Circuit Court, (2) plaintiffs had indicated they would be filing a lawsuit against the road commission, and (3) all the nonparty witnesses resided in Jackson County. The McMillin defendants maintained that venue in Jackson County was more convenient for all involved, and, for reasons of judicial economy, all actions arising out of this accident should be litigated in the same court. For reasons not entirely clear from the record, the McMillin defendants' motion for change of venue was dismissed.1
Plaintiffs moved to amend their complaint to add the Jackson County Road Commission, Charles Walz, Nels Peter Swanson, and Aggregate Industries, also known as Bill Smith Sand & Gravel, Inc., as defendants. The McMillin defendants concurred in plaintiffs' motion. Plaintiffs' motion to amend was granted on May 10, 2001. In the amended complaint, plaintiffs alleged counts against: (1) the estate of Michael Brian McMillin for negligence in the operation of the vehicle; (2) Michael Bradley McMillin for negligence under the owner's liability statute; (3) Charles Walz, a Jackson County Road Commission employee, for gross negligence in the placement of the cable across the roadway; (4) the Jackson County Road Commission for gross negligence relating to the placement of the cable and maintenance of the roadway; (5) Nels Peter Swanson, a Department of Natural Resources employee, for gross negligence relating to the height at which the cable was placed across the roadway; and (6) Aggregate Industries for failure to complete several measures relating to its mining activities that would have enhanced the safety of the area where the accident occurred.2
One of the newly added defendants, the Jackson County Road Commission, moved for a change of venue. The road commission argued that, pursuant to M.C.L. § 600.1629, venue is proper in a county as provided in M.C.L. § 600.1621 and M.C.L. § 600.1627. However, both of these venue statutes defer to M.C.L. § 600.1615, which provides that a governmental unit must be sued in the county in which it exercises or may exercise governmental authority. Therefore, the road commission maintained, venue is not proper in Wayne County and must be transferred to Jackson County.3
Plaintiffs opposed the motion for a change of venue, on the theory that venue was appropriate in Wayne County, pursuant to M.C.L. § 600.1629(1)(c), because the original action involved only residents of Wayne County. Once venue was properly laid, plaintiffs argued, it did not become improper when an amended complaint added other defendants because venue is determined at the time the suit is filed. Further, plaintiffs claimed, under M.C.L. § 600.1641(1) when multiple claims are joined in an action and the venue of one or more would have been improper if the claims had been brought in separate actions, the court has discretion to retain the entire action for trial. Plaintiffs maintained that, under these circumstances, M.C.L. § 600.1615 does not compel the transfer of venue to Jackson County. The McMillin defendants also opposed the motion for change of venue.
The Jackson County Road Commission replied that venue is not proper because this suit involves multiple causes of action. The road commission maintained that M.C.L. § 600.1641(2), which was added by the Legislature in 1995, allows for venue to be reviewed after the addition of parties by amendment of the complaint in any action based on tort.
The trial court denied the motion to change venue and invited appellate review. The trial court recognized that the question before the court presented an issue of first impression relating to statutory interpretation of the 1995 amendment of M.C.L. § 600.1641. This Court granted leave to appeal and stayed the proceedings.
Generally, we review for clear error a trial court's ruling on a motion to change venue. Massey v. Mandell, 462 Mich. 375, 379, 614 N.W.2d 70 (2000). "Clear error exists when the reviewing court is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made." Id. However, the question presented in this appeal involves an issue of statutory interpretation.4 Matters of statutory interpretation are subject to review de novo. Stozicki v. Allied Paper Co., Inc., 464 Mich. 257, 263, 627 N.W.2d 293 (2001); DeVormer v. DeVormer, 240 Mich.App. 601, 605, 618 N.W.2d 39 (2000).
The primary goal of statutory interpretation is to ascertain and give effect to the intent of the Legislature. In re MCI Telecom. Complaint, 460 Mich. 396, 411, 596 N.W.2d 164 (1999); Frankenmuth Mut. Ins. Co. v. Marlette Homes, Inc., 456 Mich. 511, 515, 573 N.W.2d 611 (1998). Initially, we review the language of the statute itself. House Speaker v. State Admin. Bd., 441 Mich. 547, 567, 495 N.W.2d 539 (1993). If the statute is unambiguous on its face, the Legislature is presumed to have intended the meaning plainly expressed and further judicial interpretation is not permissible. Lorencz v. Ford Motor Co., 439 Mich. 370, 376, 483 N.W.2d 844 (1992).
"Only where the statutory language is ambiguous may a court properly go beyond the words of the statute to ascertain legislative intent." Sun Valley Foods Co. v. Ward, 460 Mich. 230, 236, 596 N.W.2d 119 (1999). An ambiguity of statutory language does not exist merely because a reviewing court questions whether the Legislature intended the consequences of the language under review. An ambiguity can be found only where the language of a statute as used in its particular context has more than one common and accepted meaning. Thus, where common words used in their ordinary fashion lead to one reasonable interpretation, a statute cannot be found ambiguous.
Defendant Jackson County Road Commission contends that after plaintiffs amended the complaint to add additional parties the trial court was required to consider venue on defendant's timely motion pursuant to M.C.L. § 600. 1641(2). The road commission further argues that venue under the amended complaint is not proper in Wayne County and must be transferred to Jackson County.
Before it was amended in 1995, M.C.L. § 600.1641, which governs venue in joined causes of action, provided:
Where causes of action are joined, whether properly or not, the venue may be laid in any county in which either cause of action, if sued upon separately, could have been commenced and tried, subject to separation and change pursuant to and subject to the conditions imposed by court rules.
Case law before the 1995 amendment of M.C.L. § 600.1641 suggests that venue could be considered only at the time the lawsuit was instituted. See Omne Financial, Inc. v. Shacks, Inc., 226 Mich.App. 397, 405, 573 N.W.2d 641 (1997), aff'd 460 Mich. 305, 596 N.W.2d 591 (1999). However, the clear language added by the Legislature in 1995 dictates otherwise:
(1) Except as provided in subsection (2), if causes of action are joined, whether properly or not, venue is proper in any county in which either cause of action, if sued upon separately, could have been commenced and tried, subject to separation and change as provided by court rule.
(2) If more than 1 cause of action is pleaded in the complaint or added by amendment at...
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