Leon Johnson v. Farmers Insurance Exchange

Opinion

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

LEON JOHNSON, UNPUBLISHED April 12, 2018 Plaintiff-Appellant,

and

AMERICAN ANESTHESIA ASSOCIATES, LLC,

Intervening Plaintiff,

v No. 331725 Wayne Circuit Court FARMERS INSURANCE EXCHANGE, LC No. 13-002627-NI

Defendant-Appellee,

and

OSCAR WILSON, ARROW LOGISTICS, LLC, and DAVID GRIGGS,

Defendants.

Before: SAWYER, P.J., and HOEKSTRA and MURRAY, JJ.

MURRAY, J., (concurring).

I concur with the majority opinion’s conclusion to reverse this matter and remand it for further proceedings. Caselaw requires that before dismissing an action as a sanction a trial court must carefully evaluate on the record all available options. See Vicencio v Ramirez, 211 Mich App 501, 506; 536 NW2d 280 (1995); Dean v Tucker, 182 Mich App 27, 33; 451 NW2d 571 (1990). The record discloses that the trial court failed to do so in this case, and therefore abused its discretion in dismissing the action without considering other factors on the record. I would go no further than that to resolve this appeal, and would not attempt to evaluate the factors the trial court should have considered when the record before us is not sufficiently complete to make a proper determination.

/s/ Christopher M. Murray