Order Michigan Supreme Court
Lansing, Michigan
September 17, 2008 Clifford W. Taylor,
Chief Justice
136310 Michael F. Cavanagh
Elizabeth A. Weaver
Marilyn Kelly
Maura D. Corrigan
ROBERT HUNTER and LORIE HUNTER, Robert P. Young, Jr.
Plaintiffs-Appellees, Stephen J. Markman,
Justices
v SC: 136310
COA: 279862
Oakland CC: 2006-721234-DC
TAMMY JO HUNTER,
Defendant-Appellant,
and
JEFFREY HUNTER,
Defendant.
_________________________________________/
On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the March 20, 2008
judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is GRANTED, limited to the
issues: (1) whether the standard for parental fitness in Mason v Simmons, 267 Mich App
188, 206 (2005), and the courts’ application of Mason here, violate a natural parent’s
fundamental rights to his or her child, see Troxel v Granville, 530 US 57 (2000); (2) if a
natural parent is found to have been unfit under the appropriate standard and his or her
lack of fitness led to the child’s established custodial environment with a third party,
whether the parent’s later fitness at the time he or she seeks custody is relevant to a
proper fitness determination; (3) whether the lower courts here properly applied the Child
Custody Act’s presumption favoring the children’s established custodial environment,
MCL 722.27(1)(c), instead of the presumption in favor of natural parents, MCL
722.25(1), compare Heltzel v Heltzel, 248 Mich App 1 (2001); (4) whether the trial
court’s finding of parental unfitness here was against the great weight of the evidence;
and (5) whether the trial court’s determinations regarding the best interests of the children
were against the great weight of the evidence.
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.
September 17, 2008 _________________________________________
p0910 Clerk