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No. 130698
| Highland-Howell Development Company, LLC, |
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Kathleen McCree Lewis |
Petitioner-Appellant, |
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(Appeal from Ct of Appeals) |
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(Michigan Tax Tribunal) |
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| Township of Marion, |
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Neil H. Goodman |
| Respondent-Appellee. |
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| __________________________________________ |
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Click to view briefs in Adobe format:
Petitioner-Appellant's Brief on Appeal>>
Petitioner-Appellant's Reply Brief>>
Respondent-Appellee's Brief on Appeal>>
Michigan Association of Home Builders' Amicus Curiae Brief>>
Michigan Townships Associations' Amicus Curiae Brief>>
Background
Under the Public Improvement Act, a township may make a public improvement and levy a special assessment by following a process that includes notice, hearing, opportunity to object by property owners, approval of the plan and determination of a special assessment district by resolution, and confirmation of the “special assessment roll.” There is then another hearing, preceded by notice, at which objections can be made to the assessment roll. After that hearing, the township board confirms the special assessment roll, amends it, or rejects it. MCL 41.726(3) provides the only appeal process: “After the confirmation of the special assessment roll, all assessments on that assessment roll shall be final and conclusive unless an action contesting an assessment is filed in a court of competent jurisdiction within 30 days after the date of confirmation.” Highland-Howell Development Company, LLC owns 200 vacant acres in Marion Township. Highland-Howell did not object or appeal in December 1996 when Marion Township levied a special assessment of $3.25 million for a sanitary sewer project that included a trunk line through the middle of the Highland-Howell’s property. But in 1998, after learning that Marion Township had unofficially eliminated the trunk line from the project, Highland-Howell petitioned the Tax Tribunal. The Tax Tribunal dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because Highland-Howell had not timely appealed from the 1996 special assessment decision. After Marion Township passed a resolution on May 13, 2004 that ratified changes in the sewer plan, including elimination of the trunk line across Highland-Howell’s property, the Highland-Howell filed a petition with the Tax Tribunal within 30 days. The Tax Tribunal dismissed that appeal, reasoning that, under the legal doctrine of res judicata, the tribunal’s dismissal of the 1998 petition barred Highland-Howell’s 2004 petition. In an unpublished opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed, but on the basis that the 2004 petition was barred by collateral estoppel, a legal doctrine which prevents a party to litigation from raising an issue or fact that was decided against that party in another lawsuit. Highland-Howell appeals.
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