Jurisdiction — Business court – Commercial dispute

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Where a plaintiff has filed a complaint alleging that the defendant has failed to pay for legal services, the case must be reassigned because the plaintiff has not provided any factual allegations within the complaint to support the premise that the defendant qualifies as a business enterprise under MCL 600.8031(1)(b) for the case to qualify for business jurisdiction under MCL 600.8031(1)(c)(i).

“On October 23, 2020, Plaintiff filed a Complaint against the individual Defendant on allegations that Defendant has failed to pay for legal services rendered by Plaintiff. Contemporaneous with the filing of the Complaint, Plaintiff filed a Notice of Assignment to the Business Court — claiming that this is a business or commercial dispute because ‘one or more of the parties is a business enterprise and the other parties are its or their present or former owners, managers, shareholders, members of a limited liability company or a similar business organization, directors, officers, agents, employees, suppliers, guarantors of a commercial loan, or competitors, and the claims arise out of those relationships.’

“Business court jurisdiction is limited to actions involving a ‘business or commercial dispute.’ MCL 600.8035(3).

“Here, Plaintiff has not provided any factual allegations within the Complaint to support the premise that Defendant qualifies as a business enterprise under MCL 600.8031(1)(b) for this case to qualify for business jurisdiction under MCL 600.8031(1)(c)(i). Moreover, there are no allegations that Defendant is a present or former owner, manager, shareholder, member of a limited liability company or a similar business organization, director, officer, agent, employee, supplier, guarantor of a commercial loan, or competitor of Plaintiff or that one of the parties is a non-profit organization for this case to qualify for business court jurisdiction under MCL 600.8031(1)(c)(ii) or (iii).

“As a result, the Court finds that this action does not qualify as a business or commercial dispute as defined by MCL 600.8035(1). For these reasons, this action is excluded from business court jurisdiction and the Court orders the case to be coded CZ and reassigned to the general civil division.”

Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss P.C. v. Kaplan; MiLW No. 10-103288, 2 pages; Oakland County Circuit Court; Alexander, J.

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