OLC Attorney Reappointed Class Counsel in Ongoing Tax Equity Lawsuit

For Immediate Release | Jan 19, 2025
https://olcplc.com/public/media?1737315551

Outside Legal Counsel attorney Philip L. Ellison, along with attorney colleagues E. Powell Miller (of The Miller Law Firm) and Matthew Gronda (of Gronda PLC), has been reappointed class co-counsel in the ongoing litigation against the State of Michigan in the Michigan Court of Claims on the illegal taking of private property. This recent re-appointment adds to the prior appointments of Ellison as class counsel in similar cases across the state including in federal court.

On behalf of two Shiawassee County residents, Ellison filed the original Court of Claims lawsuit that called the State's action in taking surplus proceeds as being a violation of the Fifth Amendment's Taking Clause and the mirroring provision under the Michigan Constitution. At Ellison's urging, the Court of Claims was the very first court to find that what "foreclosing governmental units" (like the State of Michigan and certain self-appointed Michigan counties) were doing violates the rights of former homeowners.

In the later 2020 of Rafaeli v. Oakland County (Docket No. 156849), the Michigan Supreme Court, voting 7-0, reversed a Court of Appeals decision repeated touted by governments as being correctly decided and instead found that FGUs cannot retain surplus proceeds from the sale of a home that had been foreclosed upon for failure to pay property taxes (i.e. tax foreclosure). Since that time, however, the State and other FGUs have litigated strenuously to find other legal justifications to keep what one federal judge has called as "theft" by government officials.

During oral arguments, Judge Christopher Yates recognized Ellison as the longtime leader of these class-based constitutional cases being pursued in the Court of Claims and elsewhere.

A copy of the decision can be viewed here.
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