e-Journal Summary

e-Journal Number : 60046
Opinion Date : 05/20/2015
e-Journal Date : 05/27/2015
Court : Michigan Supreme Court
Case Name : Chabad-Lubavitch of MI v. Schuchman
Practice Area(s) : Real Property Constitutional Law
Judge(s) : Young, Jr., Markman, Kelly, Zahra, McCormack, and Viviano; Not participating – Bernstein
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Issues:

Property ownership dispute between religious entities; Statute of limitations; When the plaintiff's claim accrued; MCL 600.5827; "Equitable tolling"; Trentadue v. Buckler Lawn Sprinkler; Effect of the parties' involvement in ecclesiastical dispute resolution proceedings; AFSCME v. Highland Park Bd. of Educ.; The necessity of exhaustion of religious dispute resolution remedies before filing an action in the civil courts; Buettner v. Frazer; Miller v. McClung; Dispute as to when the ecclesiastical dispute resolution process ended

Summary

In an order in lieu of granting leave to appeal, the court reversed the Court of Appeals judgment in a published opinion (see e-Journal # 57166 in the 5/27/14 edition), holding that there were no grounds for equitably tolling the statute of limitations. “MCL 600.5827 and MCL 600.5829 govern the accrual of the plaintiffs’ claims. The statutory scheme is exclusive, and neither statute contains a provision to toll the period of limitations.” The court denied the application for leave to appeal as cross-appellants as moot.

Full PDF Opinion