This week the Michigan Supreme Court gave us two cases to review.
Stefanski vs. the Saginaw County 911 deals with the Michigan Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA), and whether or not the old school concept of Common Law could be incorporated into the MI WPA for the purposes of suing an employer. Stefanski said he was fired, not because it had too many unauthorized “no show” for work days, but because he was going to “blow the whistle” on his employers for gross negligence. But gross negligence isn’t a listed reason to be protected by the WPA. But it would be if the old common law practice were incorporated into this law.
In re: D. V. Lange addresses two statutory provisions regarding when child custody and the Probate courts can take jurisdiction over a minor child due to a parent’s neglect. Specifically, the issue was whether or not the mother was or was NOT able to care for her child. If should could care for the child, but chose not to, the probate court could take jurisdiction and enter the child into child protective service. But in a head-scratching line of reasoning, the Michigan Supreme Court deemed the mother was unable to care for her child, and so the probate court couldn’t take the minor child into custody.
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