Green v. State Corrections Dept.

• Decision Date: 21 December 1971
• Docket Number: No. 53294,53294
• Citation: 386 Mich. 459,192 N.W.2d 491
• Parties: Amos GREEN, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. STATE of Michigan CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

Page 491

192 N.W.2d 491

386 Mich. 459

Amos GREEN, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. STATE of Michigan CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 53294.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Dec. 21, 1971.

Lopatin, Miller, Bindes, Tanielian & Freedman, Detroit, for plaintiff and appellee; Michael H. Feiler, Detroit, of counsel.

Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., Stewart H. Freeman, Asst. Sol. Gen., Charles D. Hackney, Douglas E. Salisbury, Asst. Attys. Gen., Lansing, for defendant and appellant.

Before the Entire Bench.

PER CURIAM.

Invoking the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims provided by chapter 64 of the Revised Judicature Act (M.C.L.A. § 600.6401 et seq.), plaintiff sued the State of Michigan, Department of Corrections, for tortious personal injury sustained while he was incarcerated in the Detroit House of Correction. The circumstances of plaintiff's sentence and the legal responsibility of the Department of Corrections as claimed by him--and that of the State accordingly--are disclosed demonstratively by the official Mittimus. It reads:

'STATE OF MICHIGAN

County of Wayne

CITY OF DETROIT

THE RECORDER'S COURT OF THE CITY OF DETROIT SS

'The People of the State of Michigan

vs

AMOS GREEN

File No. A--130408

Information for Assault with Intent to Murder

Before Judge Frank G. Schemanske

'At a session of the Recorder's Court of said City, held in and for said city, at the Court of said Court (sic), on the 26th day of October, A.D. 1966, the defendant, AMOS GREEN, in the above entitled cause, on his plea of GUILTY, and after an investigation by the judge of said Court as to the circumstances, attending said plea of GUILTY, was convicted of having, (on the 28th day of May A.D. 1966), committed the crime of Felonious Assault

Statute Section: _ _ at the City of Detroit, County of Wayne, Michigan.

'And upon the said conviction, the said court, at a session thereof, held as aforesaid, and on the 29th day of November A.D. 1966, adjudge and determine that the said AMOS GREEN, who is now the age of 69 years should be committed to the Michigan Corrections Commission by delivery to the Detroit House of Correction, the place designated by the commission, and therein safely kept and employed according to the laws thereof, for the period of First Sixty Days from and including this date. As a Part of Two Year's Probation' The facts and conditions under which plaintiff was causally injured are detailed comprehensively in the opinion of Division 2, 30 Mich.App. 648, 650, 651, 186 N.W.2d 792 and there is no occasion now for recount thereof. It is enough to say that, had the defendant at bar been a private citizen, agency, or entity made responsible by law or by any like undertaking to 'safely' keep the plaintiff, there was sufficient evidence upon which a finding of actionable negligence on the part of such citizen, agency, or entity could be made and reported by a duly appointed fact finder or finders.

The controlling question is whether the State, through the Department of Corrections, may be held to respond in damages for tortious injury sustained by a State-sentenced convict while he is incarcerated in the Detroit House of Correction. It is answered affirmatively by two conjoining sections of the Department of Corrections Act of 1953, No. 232 as amended:

The first is M.C.L.A. § 791.204:

'Sec. 4. Subject to constitutional powers vested in the executive and judicial departments of the state, the department (of corrections) shall have exclusive jurisdiction over the following: (a) Probation officers of this state, and the administration of all orders of probation, (b) pardons, reprieves, commutations and paroles, and (c) penal institutions, correctional farms, probation recovery camps, prison labor and industry, wayward minor programs and youthful trainee institutions and programs for the care and supervision of youthful trainees.'

The other is the first sentence of the second paragraph of section 62 of the act of 1953, as amended by P.A.1964, No. 111 (M.C.L.A. § 791.262):

'The department (of corrections) shall supervise and inspect local jails and houses of correction for the purpose of obtaining facts in any manner pertaining to the usefulness and proper management of said penal institutions and of promoting proper, efficient and humane administration thereof, and shall promulgate rules and standards with relation thereto; and any reasonable order with respect to such penal institutions may be enforced through mandamus or injunction in the circuit court of the county where the penal institution is located, through proper proceedings instituted by the attorney general on behalf of the commission.'

A second point made by the attorney general is that the State, hence Corrections as a 'department' or 'commission' within section 6419 of the Court of Claims Act, is immune from the liability plaintiff asserts. In our view this contention was dealt with correctly by Division 2, 30 Mich.App. at 653, 654, 655, 186 N.W.2d at 795, 796 as follows:

'Secondly, defendant urges that it was error for the trial court to deny its affirmative defense of sovereign immunity. We di...