The state agency that investigates civil rights complaints is legally permitted to take as long as it needs to do so, even if the probe takes several years, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled.
The city of Grand Rapids filed a lawsuit in 2023, complaining that the Michigan Department of Civil Rights can take more than three years to decide whether civil cases may be filed in cases of alleged discrimination.
The suit came as Grand Rapids faced 13 pending complaints, mainly related to the city’s police department. The city argued that the extended delays were enough to have several long-pending cases dismissed.
The state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976 sets a 180-day window for individuals to file a complaint with the MDCR to launch an investigation. If the MDCR finds probable cause, the aggrieved party has three years to file their complaint in court.
Grand Rapids wanted the court to rule that MDCR is also beholden to the three-year statute of limitations. MDCR should not be able to authorize court action indefinitely, the city argued, because it would run counter to a 1998 ruling that says state law should prevent “absurd results.”
However, citing a 2012 case, judges Michael F. Gadola, Thomas C. Cameron and Michelle M. Rick determined that, “a result is only absurd if it is quite impossible that the Legislature could have intended the result.”
The only time limitation governing the MDCR is the 180-day window for individuals of alleged discrimination to file a complaint, the panel wrote.
“Neither the MDCR nor the Legislature has imposed a deadline by which the investigation of a complaint must proceed to the charging phase,” the panel wrote. “If plaintiff believes this to be an absurd result, which this Court does not, the proper forum to bring this concern would be the MDCR itself or the Legislature. This Court will not impose a statute of limitations where one is not applicable.”
Spokespersons and attorneys for the city of Grand Rapids did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
A 2023 audit by the Michigan Office of the Auditor General found that, on average, it takes MDCR 19 months to review each alleged case of Civil Rights violations and that 62% of its investigations involved “significant delays.”
The audit also found the department’s overall complaint process “not effective,” noting the department was taking an average of 13 months longer to complete an investigation than its stated goal of six months.
The department blamed the delays on insufficient staffing, saying each of its investigators is assigned up to 100 cases at any given time.
MDCR Director of Communications Vicki Levengood didn’t immediately return an email from The Detroit News seeking an update on the backlog and comment on the appeals court ruling.
The case was initially filed in the Court of Claims, which dismissed it in April 2024, according to online court records.
The MDCR has filed a related lawsuit in a Michigan circuit court, seeking to compel the city of Grand Rapids to turn over materials related to one of the civil rights complaints filed against the city. That case has been pending, with the circuit court awaiting results of the appeals court case, according to Thursday’s ruling.
Rick was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 2020. Gadola and Cameron were both appointed to the bench by former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
@max_detroitnews
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Department of Civil Rights not beholden to statute of limitations: Ruling
Reporting by Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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