Acer Paradise, Inc. v. KALKASKA CTY. ROAD COMM.

684 N.W.2d 903
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 5, 2004
Docket242389
StatusPublished

This text of 684 N.W.2d 903 (Acer Paradise, Inc. v. KALKASKA CTY. ROAD COMM.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Acer Paradise, Inc. v. KALKASKA CTY. ROAD COMM., 684 N.W.2d 903 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

684 N.W.2d 903 (2004)
262 Mich.App. 193

ACER PARADISE, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
KALKASKA COUNTY ROAD COMMISSION and Township of Clearwater, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 242389.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted February 3, 2004, at Grand Rapids.
Decided May 27, 2004, at 9:05 a.m.
Released for Publication August 5, 2004.

*904 Sondee, Racine & Doren, PLC (by W. Peter Doren and Karrie A. Zeits), Traverse City, for the plaintiff.

Brandt, Fisher, Alward & Roy, P.C. (by Thomas R. Alward and Vicki P. Kundinger), Traverse City, for the Kalkaska County Road Commission.

Young, Graham & Elsenheimer, P.C. (by Peter R. Wendling), Bellaire, for Clearwater Township.

Before: MURRAY, P.J., and MURPHY and MARKEY, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff appeals as of right from the trial court's order granting defendants' motions for summary disposition. We affirm.

I. Material Facts and Proceedings

The issue in this case is whether jurisdiction over 0.26 miles of Glade Valley Road located in Kalkaska County, Clearwater Township, was properly transferred from the Kalkaska County Road Commission to Clearwater Township. The trial court set forth the material facts related to the main issue on appeal in a written opinion, and the parties do not dispute this factual rendition. Therefore, we adopt it as our own:

As an abutting landowner, plaintiff filed a petition on September 24, 1999, with the Kalkaska County Road Commission ("the Road Commission") seeking to have Glade Valley Road ("the Road") abandoned pursuant to MCL 224.18. At a hearing on October 13, 1999, the Road Commission granted the petition to abandon the .84 mile stretch of the Road that is north and east of the river. The minutes of the hearing reveal that the petition was not granted as to the entire 1.1 mile length of the Road because the Road Commission believed that they were required to offer the remaining .26 mile stretch to Defendant Clearwater Township ("the Township") and the [Michigan Department of Natural Resources]. This question resulted from language in MCL 224.18 that outlines special provisions for roads that cross the general course of a stream, which require that, before abandonment, a county must offer the portion of road to the township in which it is situated for purposes of access and ingress/egress to the stream. The Plaintiff then requested 60 days in which to discuss the matter with the Township.
There was some written correspondence between the Road Commission and the Township regarding the remaining .26 mile portion of Glade Valley Road. No formal action was taken, however, until the Township passed a resolution on April 18, 2000 in which it accepted jurisdiction over the .26 mile portion including the "Iron Bridge". The Road Commission then passed a resolution *905 dated April 26, 2000 in which it officially relinquished jurisdiction of the .26 mile portion to the Township.
The Plaintiff subsequently filed a four-count Complaint naming both the Road Commission and the Township as Defendants. Counts I and II seek declaratory relief with regard to ownership of the Iron Bridge; Counts III and IV, pled in the alternative, seek relief under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and injunctive relief.

The parties stipulated the dismissal of plaintiff's claim that the Michigan Environmental Protection Act was violated, and the trial court dismissed plaintiff's claim for an easement by necessity on the basis that plaintiff has every right to utilize the 0.26 mile portion of the road to access its property even though the road commission relinquished jurisdiction to the township. These two issues are not raised on appeal. With regard to count one, which is the basis for the main dispute on appeal, the trial court held that the township did not exceed its authority under MCL 224.18 by assuming jurisdiction over the 0.26 mile portion of the road, including the Iron Bridge. The trial court also dismissed plaintiff's request for an injunction to require defendants to take the affirmative act of maintaining and repairing the Iron Bridge so that it could support emergency vehicles, and to prohibit defendants from closing, removing, or adding further weight restrictions to the bridge.

II. Analysis

The central issue on appeal is whether the road commission properly relinquished jurisdiction over the 0.26 mile stretch of the road to the township pursuant to MCL 224.18. Our review of the trial court's grant of summary disposition, as well our review of its construction of MCL 224.18, is de novo. Eggleston v. Bio-Medical Applications of Detroit, Inc., 468 Mich. 29, 32, 658 N.W.2d 139 (2003); Veenstra v. Washtenaw Country Club, 466 Mich. 155, 159, 645 N.W.2d 643 (2002).

A. Relinquishments of Jurisdiction

In Rakestraw v. Gen. Dynamics Land Systems, Inc., 469 Mich. 220, 224, 666 N.W.2d 199 (2003), our Supreme Court set forth how a court is to discern legislative intent:

In interpreting a statute, our obligation is to discern the legislative intent that may reasonably be inferred from the words actually used in the statute. White v. Ann Arbor, 406 Mich. 554, 562, 281 N.W.2d 283 (1979). A bedrock principle of statutory construction is that "a clear and unambiguous statute leaves no room for judicial construction or interpretation." Coleman v. Gurwin, 443 Mich. 59, 65, 503 N.W.2d 435 (1993). When the statutory language is unambiguous, the proper role of the judiciary is to simply apply the terms of the statute to the facts of a particular case. Turner v. Auto Club Ins. Ass'n, 448 Mich. 22, 27, 528 N.W.2d 681 (1995). In addition, words used by the Legislature must be given their common, ordinary meaning. MCL 8.3a.

Plaintiff's main contention on appeal is that, contrary to the trial court's ruling, the road commission did not have the authority under MCL 224.18 to relinquish jurisdiction of the 0.26 mile portion of Glade Valley Road to the township because that statutory provision has been superseded by the transfer of jurisdiction over highways act (transfer act), MCL 247.851 et seq.

The portions of MCL 224.18, operative at the time the relevant proceedings took *906 place,[1] read as follows:

(3) The board of county road commissioners of any county which has adopted the county road system, at any time, may either relinquish jurisdiction of or absolutely abandon and discontinue any county road, or any part of a county road, by a resolution adopted by a majority vote. The vote of the county road commissioners in respect to either relinquishment of jurisdiction or absolute abandonment and discontinuance shall be taken and entered, and notice given, in the same manner as required in this section in cases in which county roads are adopted.

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Bluebook (online)
684 N.W.2d 903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/acer-paradise-inc-v-kalkaska-cty-road-comm-michctapp-2004.