VICTORY IN LENAWEE COUNTY AIRPORT CASE

The Michigan Supreme Court refused to review a published opinion issued by the Michigan Court of Appeals upholding a successful verdict and the requirement that the County pay significant interest on the judgment.

In June, 2012, I tried the case of Lenawee County v Wagley.  (To read newspaper coverage about that verdict, click here. The Michigan Court of Appeals upheld that verdict.  (To read a blog post describing that opinion that includes a link to the opinion, click here. 

Lenawee County sought leave to appeal from the Michigan Supreme Court.  The Michigan Supreme Court does not review every case presented to it.  Rather, it chooses cases that it feels were wrongly decided or have a substantial impact on the law moving forward.  Lenawee County was joined by a number of municipal entities that filed a “friend of the Court” brief requesting that the Supreme Court reverse the Court of Appeals’ opinion.

Last week, the Supreme Court denied leave to appeal in a formulaic order.  This represents final victory for the Wagley family.  It also will require the Court of Appeals to respect the Wagley decision when reviewing the case of the Wagleys’ neighbors that I tried in October, 2012.  (To read an article in Michigan Lawyers’ Weekly about that verdict, click here.