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Stalking: Conduct That Serves a Legitimate Purpose By Peter Psarouthakis - President MCPI Published: February 6, 2005 The Michigan Supreme Court came back with a decision on a case (Ronald Nastal v. Henderson Associates Investigations, Inc.) involving a Michigan PI company and its employees that could have had very bad consequences for all PI's. The PI company in question was accused of violation of the Michigan Stalking law while conducting an insurance surveillance. The employees unfortunately were spotted on more than one occasion by the Plaintiff who then filed against the Insurance Company, PI company and its employees. The insurance company settled early on, but the Private Investigations company decided to fight it all the way. Both the lower court and Appeals court took the Plaintiffs position. The Michigan Supreme Court decided 5-2 in favor of the defendants saying "We conclude that surveillance by licensed private investigators that contributes to the goal of obtaining information, as permitted by the Private Detective License Act, MCL 338.822(b)(i)-(v), is conduct that serves a legitimate purpose. In the present case, plaintiff failed to establish a genuine issue of material fact that the conduct here complained of ever ceased serving such purpose, notwithstanding the fact that plaintiff observed the investigators following him. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand this case to the circuit court for entry of summary disposition in defendants' favor." For more information on this case including the complete Supreme Court decision, Appeals court decision and briefs filed please go the following web site. http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt The Michigan Council of Private Investigators (MCPI) filed an Amicus Curiae Brief for this case and we could not be more happy with the outcome. Michigan Supreme Court Opinion (PDF) |