Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in Schafer v. Kent County with Michigan’s Supreme Court, arguing that Kent County violated Michigan’s just compensation clause when it sold Matthew Schafer and Harry and Lilly Hucklebury’s homes to pay delinquent property taxes and pocketed the surplus as windfall profits. 

“In this case, Kent County argues that it can keep profits from the sale of these homes, claiming that it will create a financial strain on the county if it has to repay all of the cash it unlawfully seized from property owners,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “Seizing these profits was always unconstitutional, and Kent County should be embarrassed to ask the court to let it pocket these ill-gotten gains.”

If Kent County followed the law in this case, it would return $46,200 to Mr. Schafer and $27,000 to the Huckleburys. Instead, the county claims that it can keep the profits because this case was filed before the Michigan Supreme Court ruled this action unconstitutional in Rafaeli, LLC v. Oakland County, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the act unconstitutional in Tyler v. Hennepin County. 

The Buckeye Institute was joined on its brief by the Illinois Policy Institute. Lawyers from Visser and Associates and Pacific Legal Foundation represent Mr. Schafer and the Huckleburys.

# # #

UPDATE: On July 29, 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court agreed with The Buckeye Institute, ruling that property owners are entitled to just compensation and that the Michigan Supreme Court’s prior ruling on this issue in Rafaeli v. Oakland County must be applied retroactively to those who lost their home equity to the state before the Rafaeli case was decided. The court explained, “Requiring just compensation for public use of private property is a basic right lying at the heart of rule-bound government in Michigan and the United States more broadly.”