People v. Woodland Oil Co., Inc.
| Decision Date | 10 December 1986 |
| Docket Number | Docket Nos. 77142,77560 |
| Citation | 153 Mich.App. 799,396 N.W.2d 541 |
| Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WOODLAND OIL COMPANY, INC., a Michigan corporation; Russell Milligan; Orth Oil, Inc., a Michigan corporation; Ronald Orth; Kenneth Orth; Gilbert's Service Oil Company, a Michigan corporation; d/b/a Mutual Service Stations; Imperial Oil Company, a Michigan corporation; Lewis Johnson; Ronald Ayers, d/b/a Universal Car Wash; Schmuckal Oil Company, Inc., a Michigan corporation; Don Foster Oil Company; Richard Bruner; William Blair, d/b/a Blair's Service; Dale Johnson, d/b/a Johnson Oil, Defendants-Appellees, and Nelson Oil Company, a Michigan corporation, Defendant. PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. WOODLAND OIL COMPANY, INC., a Michigan corporation; Russell Milligan, Defendants-Appellants, and Orth Oil, Inc., a Michigan corporation; Ronald Orth; Kenneth Orth; Gilbert's Service Oil Company, a Michigan corporation, d/b/a Mutual Service Stations; Imperial Oil Company Inc., a Michigan corporation; Lewis Johnson; Ronald Ayers, d/b/a Universal Car Wash; Schmuckal Oil Company, Inc., a Michigan corporation; Don Foster Oil Company, a Michigan corporation; Richard Bruner; William Blair, d/b/a Blair's Service; Dale Johnson, d/b/a Johnson Oil, Defendants. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Louis J. Caruso, Sol. Gen., and William E. Molnar, Richard T. O'Neill and Edwin M. Bladen, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the people.
Stewart A. Christian, Traverse City, for defendant Gilbert Service Oil Co.
Weller, Cella & Simmons by Robert F. Cella, Richmond, for defendants Don Foster Oil Co. and Richard Bruner.
Brott, Conaway & Kipley, P.C. by Robert W. Brott, Acme, for defendant Ronald Ayers.
Lewis & Schuknecht, P.C., by Michael D. Lewis, Traverse City, for defendants Orth Oil, Inc., Ronald Orth and Kenneth Orth.
Before DANHOF, C.J., and MacKENZIE and BANKS *, JJ.
Leave having been granted, the people appeal an order of the Grand Traverse Circuit Court which affirmed an order of dismissal in the 86th District Court. Delayed appeal was granted for a cross-appeal filed by defendant Woodland Oil Company, which seeks review of earlier interlocutory rulings, not the order of the circuit court.
Defendants are distributors and retailers of gasoline and oil products in the Traverse City and Northern Lower Peninsula markets. The Attorney General charged defendants with conspiracy to fix the retail price of motor vehicle fuel, M.C.L. Sec. 750.558; M.S.A. Sec. 28.826, alleging that in late 1976 or early January, 1977, defendants Orths, Gordon Grapes, Ronald Ayers, Lewis Johnson and Imperial Oil Company held meetings to agree upon the retail price of motor vehicle fuel to be sold to consumers at retail outlets in the Traverse City market. Woodland Oil Company, Russell Milligan, and Schmuckal Oil Company also allegedly joined the other defendants in their agreement to fix prices in 1978.
Finally, it is charged that the defendants made personal visits to retail dealers in Grand Traverse and other counties for the purpose of discussing retail prices and to convince or coerce these dealers to adhere to defendants' price changes as they were made.
At the preliminary examination a great deal of testimony was presented by certain alleged coconspirators (who had agreed to give testimony in exchange for immunity) about conversations that took place among various defendants with respect to setting prices and about keeping prices stable. The district court concluded that the bulk of the people's evidence was hearsay. The court recognized that hearsay evidence is admissible only after the existence of a conspiracy has been proved by independent evidence and found that, absent the hearsay evidence, inconclusive circumstantial evidence remained. Upon appeal, the circuit court found that the district court did not err in determining that independent evidence of a conspiracy needed to be presented prior to the admission of the hearsay evidence and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that insufficient circumstantial evidence existed apart from the hearsay evidence to support a bindover.
The people now claim on appeal that the evidence produced at the preliminary examination supported and compelled a finding of conspiracy to fix prices of motor vehicle fuel such that the district court abused its discretion in failing to bind defendants over for trial.
The abuse of discretion standard is indeed the correct measure with which to review the magistrate's decision. People v. Schaffer, 129 Mich.App. 287, 290, 341 N.W.2d 507 (1983), lv. den. 418 Mich. 933 (1984). That standard has been defined by this Court:
" ' "In order to have an abuse in reaching such determination, the result must be so palpably and grossly violative of fact and logic that it evidences not the exercise of will but...
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...Mich.App. 674, 383 N.W.2d 270 (1985); People v. Washington, 84 Mich.App. 750, 270 N.W.2d 511 (1978); see also People v. Woodland Oil Co., 153 Mich.App. 799, 396 N.W.2d 541 (1986). In adopting the prosecutor's view that an error at preliminary examination could be cured by sufficient evidenc......
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...discharge a defendant when the evidence conflicts or there is a reasonable doubt as to defendant's guilt. People v. Woodland Oil Co, Inc, 153 Mich.App. 799, 396 N.W.2d 541 (1986). A reviewing court should not disturb a magistrate's determination at the preliminary examination unless a clear......
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