Attorneys David Anderson, Trent Collier, and Fawzeih Daher obtained dismissal of an appeal for lack of jurisdiction on behalf of our client (a national financial services firm) and 12 other defendants in a case involving allegations of improper accounting.
The plaintiff filed suit against 13 defendants in the Probate Court. One by one, the Probate Court granted summary disposition in favor of each defendant. In March 2018, the last remaining defendant was dismissed from the case. The plaintiff filed an appeal in September after the trial court entered an order closing the case.
Under the Michigan Court Rules, the first order that resolves all the claims of all the parties is the “final order” which establishes appellate jurisdiction. David, Trent, and Fawzeih filed a motion to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, and the other defendants joined in.
Although the plaintiff filed her appeal from an order which included the standard “final order” language, that language wasn’t controlling for jurisdictional purposes. The Michigan Supreme Court denied the plaintiff’s application for leave to appeal from that decision.
