Claim for excess tax-foreclosure proceeds; The General Property Tax Act; MCL 211.78t; In re Petition of Muskegon Treasurer for Foreclosure; Compliance with the notice requirement in MCL 211.78t(2)

The court held that claimants seeking to recover excess tax-foreclosure sale proceeds must comply with MCL 211.78t(2)’s notice requirement “by filing Department of Treasury Form 5743 by the specified deadline, and circuit courts are without authority to waive or alter this statutory requirement on the basis of considerations of fairness or equity.” Respondent failed to provide petitioner-county treasurer “with the sworn written notice required by MCL 211.78t(2). Instead, acting in propria persona, [she] filed two motions for relief from the judgment of foreclosure on [6/13/23], one for each parcel” at issue. The circuit court denied her motions to reverse the foreclosure but ordered “petitioner to consider respondent as having provided the notice required by MCL 211.78t(2). [It] found that respondent had manifestly expressed a desire to receive the excess proceeds ‘given the fact that she has tried to fight the foreclosure itself.’” On appeal, the court agreed with petitioner that the circuit “court erred by issuing an order that is contrary to the plain, unambiguous language of MCL 211.78t(2), which requires claimants of excess tax-foreclosure proceeds to initiate the process of recovery by submitting Department of Treasury Form 5743.” It found that despite the statute’s “plain unambiguous language, the circuit court construed the statute as not requiring petitioner to submit a signed and sworn Form 5743 in this matter, effectively rewriting § 78t(2). Such a holding defied established principles of statutory construction.” Thus, the court affirmed in part, vacated the part of “the circuit court’s order directing petitioner to consider respondent as having given effective notice of her intention to recover excess foreclosure proceeds from the” properties, and remanded.