MARGARET LAVELLE V BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR SAGINAW COUNTY
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
MARGARET LAVELLE and LEEMYRTHIA
LONG, On Behalf of Themselves and All Others
Similarly Situated,
UNPUBLISHED
February 19, 2002
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
No. 225515
Saginaw Circuit Court
LC No. 98-023230-AW
v
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR
SAGINAW COUNTY and THE SAGINAW
COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICES BOARD,
Defendants-Appellants.
Before: Fitzgerald, P.J., and Hoekstra and Markey, JJ.
MARKEY, J. (dissenting)
I respectfully dissent. Defendants claim that MCL 400.70 and MCL 400.66a grant
defendant Board of Commissioners, and not the court, the authority and sole discretion to
determine necessary funding amounts for the RCH program. Defendants claim that their
assertion is further supported by the case of Musselman v Governor, 448 Mich 503; 533 NW2d
237 (1995). In response, plaintiffs claim that King v Director of the Midland Co Dep’t of Social
Services, 73 Mich App 253; 251 NW2d 270 (1977), supports the trial court’s ruling that it has
authority to determine monetary amounts for the RCH program.
In King, supra at 260, the defendant county discontinued general assistance payments
required under MCL 400.55 because it had not appropriated sufficient funds to support the
program. Like the RCH here, the general assistance program in King was mandatory upon the
county. Id. at 259. Like the instant defendants, the defendant county in King asserted that the
“within its discretion” language contained in MCL 400.70 supported its action of stopping
general assistance payments. Id. at 258. This Court concluded that the defendant county did not
have the right to suspend general assistance payments to eligible recipients because although
MCL 400.70 allowed the board of commissioners to exercise its discretion in determining the
amount of the appropriation necessary to maintain and administer welfare services, it did not
allow the board to appropriate less funds than were sufficient to maintain the mandatory
program. Id. at 261-262. This Court issued a writ of mandamus directing the payment of back
benefits for the period of suspension. Id. at 262.
-1-
In comparison, the case defendants relied upon, Musselman, supra, involved a request for
a writ of mandamus requiring the Governor and the Legislature to appropriate money to prefund
health benefits that would have to be paid in the future to retired public school employees. The
Court held that although the Legislature had violated the Michigan Constitution by not
prefunding retirement health care benefits for public school employees, it was without authority
to order an appropriation to mandate constitutional compliance.1 Id. at 524. The Court reasoned
that the drafters of the constitutional provision dealing with health care benefits, Const 1963, art
9, § 24, did not contemplate that a court could enforce the prefunding requirement. Id. at 522.
I agree with the trial court that the facts in this case “are sufficiently different from
Musselman and close enough to King that it does have the power to force an appropriation.” As
the trial court correctly observed: “Unlike Musselman, the instant case requires an appropriation
on the part of the defendants while no such requirement, only an expectation, was present in
Musselman.” I also agree with the trial court that the instant case does not contain the same
evidence that a writ compelling an appropriation was not contemplated by the drafters of the
constitutional provision as was the case in Musselman. Here, defendants have cited no
constitutional provision that would bar the trial court from ordering funding from the county.
Moreover, there is no statutory language contained in MCL 400.70 that precludes a court from
ordering a specific appropriation in a case such as here where defendant Board has failed to
provide the necessary amount to maintain the program in accordance with the statute. Although
the Court in King did not explicitly state that a court has the power to order a specific
appropriation, which is what the trial court here plans to do once an amount can be determined
following discovery and trial, the King Court did determine that when a program to be funded
under MCL 400.70 is a mandatory social welfare program, a writ of mandamus will be issued to
order county funding, including back benefits for periods when the mandatory program was not
operated because of the county’s unlawful failure to provide sufficient funding. King, supra at
262. The King case strongly supports the contention that courts have authority to review the
Board of Commissioners’ funding decisions under MCL 400.70 and that courts can assess
amounts for funding when a board has deliberately failed to provide sufficient funding for a
mandatory social welfare program. In this case, the court’s review of defendant Board of
Commissioners’ funding decision was necessary because $1.00 was obviously insufficient to
operate the mandatory RCH program. The court is not engaging in the inappropriate practice of
running the program, but rather will consider what monetary amounts are reasonable only after
the completion of discovery and a trial. Further, MCL 600.4431, which provides that damages
may be awarded in an action for mandamus, also supports the trial court’s decision that it can
award retroactive monetary relief to plaintiffs. MCL 600.4431 provides that damages may be
awarded in an action for mandamus.
I also note that defendants’ reliance on Oakland Co v Michigan, 456 Mich 144; 566
NW2d 616 (1997), and Durant v Michigan, 456 Mich 175; 566 NW2d 272 (1997), is misplaced.
In these cases, the courts examined a provision of the Michigan Constitution known as “the
Headlee Amendment” to apportion the responsibility for funding state-mandated programs or
services between the state and local governments. In both of these cases, county officials or
1
On rehearing in Musselman v Governor, 450 Mich 574; 545 NW2d 346 (1996), the Supreme
Court denied mandamus again.
-2-
entities sought damages from the state governments because the state had improperly shifted the
burden for funding state-mandated services from the state to the county. Unlike the present case,
both Oakland Co and Durant involved who should fund the mandated services and not whether
the services should be funded. Further, although defendants assert that the facts of the instant
case do not warrant retroactive monetary relief because the Headlee Amendment cases instruct
that retroactive damages should only be awarded in limited circumstances such as where a court
order requiring funding of mandated programs has been violated, I disagree. First, the Court in
Durant, supra at 210, n 39, specifically stated that it was not suggesting that damages are only
appropriate when a party has failed to observe a judicial order. Second, as was the case in
Durant, supra at 210, I believe that the instant case is one in which damages (i.e., retroactive
monetary relief) are “necessary or proper” because defendants shirked their obligation to operate
and fund the mandated RCH program from 1990 through at least 1998.
Thus, I conclude that the trial court has the authority to order defendant Board of
Commissioners to provide certain prospective and retroactive RCH benefits following a trial at
which the amount of past damages and future benefits would be set by the trial court, and I
would affirm.
/s/ Jane E. Markey
-3-
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.