Tarien a Hatcher v. Senior Home Health Care Inc

Order Michigan Supreme Court
Lansing, Michigan
July 29, 2011 Robert P. Young, Jr.,
Chief Justice
141838 Michael F. Cavanagh
Marilyn Kelly
TARIEN A. HATCHER and MARKQUITA Stephen J. Markman
Diane M. Hathaway
FREDERICK, Co-Personal Representatives of Mary Beth Kelly
the Estate of Kimora N. Hatcher, Deceased, Brian K. Zahra,
Plaintiffs-Appellants, Justices
and
TARIEN A. HATCHER, Individually,
MARKQUITA FREDERICK, Individually,
TARIEN A. HATCHER, as Next Friend of
Latariea Hatcher, a Minor, YVETTE HATCHER,
ISABEL L. KUHLMAN, and JOSEPH EARLE,
Plaintiffs,
v SC: 141838
COA: 289208
Macomb CC: 2007-001452-NO
SENIOR HOME HEALTH CARE, INC.,
Defendant-Appellee.
_________________________________________/
On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the August 19, 2010
judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not
persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court. The plaintiffs
have failed to show that the defendant had a legal duty to them separate and distinct from
its contractual obligations. Fultz v Union Commerce Assoc, 470 Mich 460, 467 (2004).
Although a contracting party’s assumption of contractual obligations does not extinguish
or limit separately existing common-law or statutory tort duties owed to noncontracting
third parties in the performance of a contract, Loweke v Ann Arbor Ceiling & Partition
Co, LLC, 489 Mich ___ (Docket No. 141168, decided June 6, 2011), the plaintiffs have
not shown that the defendant had any such separate duty to them. The defendant, as the
provider of a nondefective product to a customer, did not thereby acquire a duty to all
unknown third parties who might be injured by the customer’s misuse of the product.
CAVANAGH, MARILYN KELLY and HATHAWAY, JJ., would vacate the judgment of
the Court of Appeals and remand this case to the Macomb Circuit Court for further
proceedings consistent with this Court’s opinion in Loweke v Ann Arbor Ceiling &
Partition Co, LLC, 489 Mich ___ (Docket No. 141168, decided June 6, 2011).
I, Corbin R. Davis, Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court, certify that the
foregoing is a true and complete copy of the order entered at the direction of the Court.
July 29, 2011 _________________________________________
t0726 Clerk