Michigan Supreme Court Decisions 2020
Date: December 29, 2020
Docket Numbers: 160908, 160907
Justia Opinion Summary: Consolidated cases involved constitutional challenges to amendments to Michigan's Election Law. The Michigan Supreme Court determined the challenges did not present a justiciable controversy. A few months after the…
Date: December 28, 2020
Docket Number: 158652
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Kristopher Hughes was convicted by jury of armed robbery, for which he was sentenced as a fourth-offense habitual offender and given 25 to 60 years in prison. In 2016, Ronald Stites and Lisa Weber were at…
Date: December 28, 2020
Docket Number: 158751
Justia Opinion Summary: In June 2016, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed into law 2016 PA 249 (codified at MCL 388.1752b), appropriating $2.5 million in funds for the 2016–2017 school year “to reimburse costs incurred by nonpublic schools”…
Date: December 3, 2020
Docket Number: 158663
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue before the Michigan Supreme Court in this case was whether defendant, Troy Antonio Brown, was entitled to a new trial because the detective who conducted defendant’s police interview testified falsely against…
Date: July 29, 2020
Docket Numbers: 157335, 157336, 157337
Justia Opinion Summary: Water users and property owners in Flint, Michigan (plaintiffs) brought a class action at the Court of Claims against defendants Governor Rick Snyder, the state of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Environmental…
Date: July 29, 2020
Docket Numbers: 157340, 157341, 157342
Date: July 29, 2020
Docket Number: 158302
Justia Opinion Summary: Meemic Insurance Company filed suit against Louise and Richard Fortson, individually and as conservator of their son, Justin Fortson, alleging that Richard and Louise had fraudulently obtained payment for attendant-care…
Date: July 28, 2020
Docket Number: 159063
Justia Opinion Summary: Keith Wood was convicted by jury of jury tampering, for having distributed a pamphlet promoting the concept of jury nullification outside the courthouse at which the pretrial hearing of a man named Andrew Yoder was…
Date: July 27, 2020
Docket Numbers: 158151, 158150
Justia Opinion Summary: Progress Michigan filed a complaint against then Attorney General Bill Schuette in his official capacity, alleging that defendant violated the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and failed to preserve state…
Date: July 24, 2020
Docket Number: 158240
Justia Opinion Summary: Susan Bisio sued the City of the Village of Clarkston for allegedly violating the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Bisio filed a FOIA request with Clarkston seeking documents related to city business,…
Date: July 23, 2020
Docket Number: 159636
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Davontae Sanford filed suit against the state of Michigan, seeking compensation under the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act (WICA). Another man confessed to the crimes committed in 2007 to which plaintiff…
Date: July 21, 2020
Docket Number: 160995
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant-appellee Derek Smith was convicted by jury on two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm (AWIGBH); three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon (felonious assault); one count of possession of…
Date: July 17, 2020
Docket Number: 156849
Justia Opinion Summary: Rafaeli, LLC, and Andre Ohanessian brought an action against Oakland County, Michigan, and its treasurer, Andrew Meisner, alleging due-process and equal-protection violations as well as an unconstitutional taking of…
Date: July 13, 2020
Docket Number: 158486
Justia Opinion Summary: While conducting a probation compliance check on defendant John D. Vanderpool’s house, a probation agent found heroin. Defendant admitted that the heroin belonged to him. A few weeks later, defendant was arrested and was…
Date: June 29, 2020
Docket Numbers: 159511, 159510
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Skanska USA Building Inc. served as the construction manager on a renovation project for Mid-Michigan Medical Center–Midland (the Medical Center); plaintiff subcontracted the heating and cooling portion of the…
Date: June 22, 2020
Docket Number: 157812
Justia Opinion Summary: Arthur Jemison was convicted by jury of first-degree sexual assault, comitted in 1996. The victim underwent a forensic examination in 1996, and evidence was collected for a rape kit at that time. But the rape kit was not…
Date: June 16, 2020
Docket Number: 158333
Date: June 16, 2020
Docket Number: 158335
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff TOMRA of North America, Inc., brought two separate actions in the Court of Claims against the Michigan Department of Treasury, seeking a refund for use tax and sales tax that plaintiff had paid on the basis…
Date: May 18, 2020
Docket Number: 157522
Justia Opinion Summary: Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP filed a petition in the Tax Tribunal, challenging the income tax assessments issued by the city of Detroit for the tax years 2010 through 2014. The firm argued that under MCL 141.623…
Date: May 13, 2020
Docket Number: 158013
Justia Opinion Summary: After a bench trial, Xun Wang was convicted of two counts of Medicaid fraud, and one count of unauthorized practice of a health profession. Defendant earned a medical degree in her native China, and earned a Ph.D. in…
Date: April 29, 2020
Docket Number: 157705
Justia Opinion Summary: Deborah Foster sought to enforce a consent judgment of divorce (the consent judgment) between herself and ex-husband Ray Foster. The consent judgment provided that Ray would pay Deborah 50% of his military disposable…
Date: April 29, 2020
Docket Number: 158065
Justia Opinion Summary: Kelly Warren pleaded guilty to two separate charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, third offense (OWI-3rd) in exchange for the dismissal of other criminal charges against him and of the sentence enhancement to…
Date: April 27, 2020
Docket Number: 158311
Justia Opinion Summary: Christie DeRuiter, a registered qualifying medical marijuana patient and a registered primary caregiver to qualifying patients, brought an action in the Kent Circuit Court against Byron Township, alleging that the…
Date: April 2, 2020
Docket Numbers: 158306, 158305
Justia Opinion Summary: The Association of Businesses Advocating Tariff Equity (ABATE) (Docket Nos. 158305 and 158306) and Energy Michigan, Inc. (Docket Nos. 158307 and 158308) each appealed an order of the Michigan Public Service Commission…
Date: April 2, 2020
Docket Numbers: 158307, 158308
Date: March 30, 2020
Docket Number: 157688
Justia Opinion Summary: Tiffany Reichard was bound over to Circuit Court on a charge of open murder under a felony-murder theory for having aided and abetted her boyfriend in an armed robbery during which he stabbed a man to death. Defendant…
Date: March 16, 2020
Docket Number: 156189
Justia Opinion Summary: Travis Sammons was convicted by jury of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shooting death of Humberto Casas. DyJuan Jones and Rosei Watkins witnessed the shooting, which occurred on a street around 1 p.m.…
Date: January 24, 2020
Docket Number: 158866
Justia Opinion Summary: Nadeem Rajput was convicted of second-degree murder. Defendant was driving his vehicle with another man, known only as Haus, as a passenger. The victim was driving a red Malibu with her boyfriend, Dewayne Clay, as a…
