Beachlawn Bldg. Corp. v. City of St. Clair Shores, 4
| Decision Date | 04 October 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 4,4 |
| Citation | 136 N.W.2d 926,376 Mich. 261 |
| Parties | BEACHLAWN BUILDING CORPORATION, a Michigan corporation, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. CITY OF ST. CLAIR SHORES, a Michigan municipal corporation, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
John H. Yoe, Detroit, for defendant and appellant.
Schuur & Keating, Detroit, by Patrick, J. Keating, Detroit, for plaintiff and appellee.
Before the Entire Bench.
SOURIS, Justice (for affirmance).
In Beachlawn Building Corporation v. City of St. Clair Shores (1963), 370 Mich. 128, 121 N.W.2d 427, we reversed the trial judge's grant of defendant's motion for directed verdict made at the close of plaintiff's proofs. In the process of reaching that decision our opinion stated the law of the case to be applied in the new trial ordered. The law of the case, as we restated it soon thereafter in Theatre Control Corp. v. City of Detroit (1963), 370 Mich. 382, 388, 121 N.W.2d 828, is that Beachlawn is entitled to maintain an action to recover fees paid by it for building permits under an ordinance which was held to be invalid in Merrelli v. City of St. Clair Shores (1959), 355 Mich. 575, 96 N.W.2d 144. While the record before this Court in the 1963 Beachlawn case contained evidence that Beachlawn had protested payment of some, it not all, of the fees exacted from it for building permits, such evidentiary proof was not essential to plaintiff's assertion of a cause of action according to the rationale of our decision. The controlling issue in such cases, we said, is whether the payments made were voluntary or under compulsion or duress so as to be involuntary and not whether the payments were made under protest. Since plaintiff could not have proceeded safely to build houses without permits from defendant, required by valid ordinance antedating the amendments declared invalid in Merrelli, supra, we concluded that plaintiff's payments were involuntary because plaintiff had to pay what defendant demanded or give up its business. In support we cited Pingree v. Mutual Gas Co. (1895), 107 Mich. 156, 65 N.W. 6, and City of Saginaw v. Consumers Power Co. (1943), 304 Mich. 491, 8 N.W.2d 149, and other earlier decisions of this Court.
On the retrial, defendant offered evidence that plaintiff had not protested payment of the invalid building permit fees notwithstanding our opinion in the 1963 appeal in which we said that the fact of protest was not an essential element of plaintiff's case. The trial judge...
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Northview Const. Co. v. City of St. Clair Shores, 12
...permit fees already paid to the city. One such suit, viewed as a test case, was Beachlawn Building Corp. v. St. Clair Shores, 370 Mich. 128, 121 N.W.2d 427 (1963), 376 Mich. 261, 136 N.W.2d 926 (1965). Therein, this Court ruled that the City of St. Clair, Shores was obligated to refund all ......
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Northview Const. Co. v. City of St. Clair Shores
...One such suit, viewed as a test case, was Beachlawn Building Corp. v. St. Clair Shores, 370 Mich. 128, 121 N.W.2d 427 (1963); 376 Mich. 261, 136 N.W.2d 926 1965). Therein, this Court ruled that the City of St. Clair Shores was obligated to refuned all excessive building permit fees paid to ......
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Northview Const. Co. v. City of St. Clair Shores
...plaintiff Beachlawn Building Corp., after remand and trial in the circuit court, was affirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court, 376 Mich. 261, 136 N.W.2d 926 (1965). In November 1965 defendant moved for summary judgment to dismiss the class action by reason of the failure to comply with the n......
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Bond v. Public Schools of Ann Arbor School Dist.
...in an action of assumpsit recover back the amount of the illegal exaction.' See, also, Beachlawn Building Corporation v. City of St. Clair Shores (1965), 376 Mich. 261, 136 N.W.2d 926. The case of Theatre Control Corporation v. City of Detroit (1963), 370 Mich. 382, 121 N.W.2d 828, involved......