Peplinski v. Employment Security Commission
Peplinski v. Employment Security Commission
Opinion of the Court
This case concerns the proper forum for consideration of an appeal from the appeal board of the Michigan employment security commission.
The controlling statute1 provides as follows:
“The findings of fact made by the appeal board acting within its powers if supported by the great weight of the evidence, shall, in the absence of fraud, be conclusive, but the circuit court of the county, in which the claimant resides or in which the employer’s principal place of business in Michigan is located, if no claimant is a party to the case, or the circuit court for the county of Ingham shall have power to review questions of fact and law on the record made before the referee and the appeal board involved in any such final decision, but said court may reverse such decision of said appeal board upon a question of fact only if it finds that said decision of the appeal board is contrary to the great weight of the evidence: Provided, That application is made within 15 days after mailing of a copy of such decision, by certiorari or by any other method permissible under the rules and practices of the circuit courts of this State, and to make such further orders in respect thereto as justice may require. The commission shall be deemed to be a party to any judicial action involving any such decision. An appeal may*668 be had from the- decision of said circuit court in the same-manner as provided by the laws of this State with respect to appeals from circuit courts.”
The “power to review” thus granted is the power to hear and determine. It is language of jurisdiction.
With much of what appellee asserts, and what the trial court held, respecting venue, and change of venue, we are in accord. Venue is primarily a matter of convenience. Properly construed, and without reference to specific statutory enactments, it “has nothing whatsoever to do with jurisdiction— instead it is concerned only with the place of trial of an action within the State.”
“In the event such suit is brought in any county other than the county where the injury occurred, the court in which the same is filed shall, upon ascertaining that it does not have jurisdiction to render judgment upon the merits, transfer the case to the proper court in the county where the injury occurred.”
Prior to the effective date of article 8307a, it had been held that where an action had been filed in the wrong county the court was without jurisdiction of the subject matter and could only dismiss.
The orders appealed from are reversed and the case remanded to the circuit court for entry of orders consistent herewith. No costs, a question of statutory construction.
CLS 1956, § 421.38 (Stat Aim 1959 Gum Supp § 17.540).
Langdon v. Judges of the Wayne Circuit Court, 76 Mich 358.
Scott v. Nevada Employment Security Department, 70 Nev 555, 551 (278 P2d 602, 603).
Mooney v. Unemployment Compensation Commission, 336 Mich 344.
Joint Committee on Michigan Procedural Revision, Pinal Report (1960), part 2, Proposed Statutes and Comments, p 89.
Federal Underwriters Exchange v. Pugh, 141 Tex 539, 542 (174 SW2d 598).
Concurring Opinion
(concurring). I agree that the statute considered in the opinion of Mr. Justice Smith (CLS 1956, § 421.38 [Stat Ann 1959 Cum Supp § 17.540])
The statute, fully procedural in nature as to its provision for judicial review, does not conflict with any adopted rule of our Court. Thus upon enactment it became an adopted rule of practice by force of 27-year-old section 3 of Court Rule No 1 (1945). See Darr v. Buckley, 355 Mich 392, syllabus No 2.
This is not a proper occasion for determination of stated question 1
Whether venue is “jurisdictional” or not, the fact remains that this employer’s special appearance and motion to dismiss were quite in order. The situation might be otherwise had all parties unreservedly squared off to obtain (and did obtain) a judicial decision of meritorious affirmance or reversal of the administrative ruling in question. See to the point Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. v. Federal Power Commission, 324 US 635, 638, 639 (65 S Ct 821, 89 L ed 1241).
The employer, having raised the question of improper venue by timely motion, was entitled to a determination below that the writ had been sued out in the wrong circuit and that it should on that account
I concur in reversal.
“Is the provision in section 38 of the Michigan employment security act, being CLS 1956, § 421.38 (Stat Ann 1959 Cum Supp § 17.540), that a claimant may appeal by way of certiorari from a final decision of the appeal board of the Michigan employment security commission to the circuit court in the county in which he resides, or to the county of Ingham, a direct jurisdictional requirement?”
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Peplinski v. Employment Security Commission. Appeal of Curtiss-Wright Corporation
- Cited By
- 26 cases
- Status
- Published