“An element of the authority granted to courts under Article VI of the Michigan Constitution is that courts will not reach moot issues.” K2 Retail Constr Servs, Inc v West Lansing Retail Dev, LLC, ___ Mich App ___, ___ (2025). “Michigan Courts exist to decide actual cases and controversies[.]” Bailey v Antrim Co, 341 Mich App 411, 419 (2022) (quotation marks and citation omitted). However, a court may “review moot issues if they are publicly significant, likely to recur, and yet likely to evade judicial review.” Duckett v Solky, 341 Mich App 706, 732 (2022) (quotation marks and citation omitted).
“An issue is rendered moot when an event has occurred that renders it impossible for the court to grant relief. An issue is also moot when a judgment, if entered, cannot for any reason have a practical legal effect on the existing controversy.” Duckett v Solky, 341 Mich App 706, 731-732 (2022) (quotation marks and citation omitted). “[O]nce [a] circuit court [becomes] aware of [a] mootness issue, it [is] obligated to address it.” Equity Funding, Inc v Village of Milford, ___ Mich App ___, ___ (2022). Indeed, “[a] court must address mootness when it arises, whether that is in a reply brief or sua sponte.” Id. at ___. “Where a court considers an issue sua sponte, due process can be satisfied by affording a party an opportunity for rehearing.” Id. at ___ (quotation marks and citation omitted).