Rule 3.301.Extraordinary Writs in General

MCR 3.301 is the gateway to Subchapter 3.300. Four kinds of relief live here — superintending control, habeas corpus, mandamus, and quo warranto — and this rule states the terms they share: where they may be filed, how they are commenced and served, how they sit alongside ordinary civil procedure, and what happens once judgment enters.

What the subchapter covers

Under subrule (A)(1) a party may pursue any of the four either by filing a civil action or, in a case already pending, by appropriate motion. The same subrule carries the sentence that decides the forum in most disputes: unless a particular rule or statute specifically provides otherwise, an original action may not be commenced in the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals if the circuit court would have jurisdiction over an action seeking that relief.

Subrule (A)(2) reaches relief formerly obtained by the writs, whether the underlying right comes from statute or from common law, and it stacks the limits. When a statute creates the right, that statute's limits on relief apply along with the limits in these rules. Subrule (A)(3) keeps the general rules of procedure in force except where this subchapter displaces them.

Pleading and service

Subrule (B) permits more than one kind of writ in a single action, as an independent claim or an alternative one, and allows other claims to be joined subject to MCR 2.203. Subrule (C) starts from the ordinary rule that process issues and is served as in other civil actions, then supplies a shortcut. When a writ, order, or order to show cause issues before service of process, serving that document in the manner prescribed by MCR 2.105 together with a copy of the complaint makes service of other process unnecessary.

Scheduling, records, and stays

• Subrule (D) allows actions under these special rules to be given precedence under MCR 2.501(B).
• Subrule (E) requires the action taken on applications for writs or orders to show cause to be noted in court records the same way as in other civil actions.
• Subrule (F) turns off the automatic stay provisions of MCR 2.614(A) for judgments in actions brought under this subchapter, so the stay that would otherwise attach after judgment does not attach here.

Relief sought in the appellate courts

Subrule (G) sends original proceedings elsewhere for their mechanics. MCR 7.306 governs original proceedings brought in the Supreme Court to obtain relief under this subchapter, and MCR 7.206 governs original proceedings brought in the Court of Appeals. Read together with subrule (A)(1), the pattern is plain: an original action belongs in one of those courts only where a particular rule or statute specifically makes room for it, or where the circuit court would not have jurisdiction of an action seeking the same relief.