Action arising from a foreclosure under the General Property Tax Act (GPTA); Rafaeli, LLC v Oakland Cnty; Hall v Meisner (6th Cir); Statutory period of limitations

Holding that “plaintiff’s claim was barred by the statutory period of limitations,” the court affirmed summary disposition for defendants in this case arising from a foreclosure under the GPTA. “Plaintiff owned real property that was foreclosed on because of delinquent property taxes.” Defendant-Melrose Township “purchased the property for a ‘minimum bid,’ and plaintiff alleged that defendants took the property without just compensation.” Plaintiff asserted it had “a constitutional right to have the property sold at public auction, under the GPTA’s amended process, because the property’s value was taken without just compensation when the property’s value far outweighed the minimum bid.” Defendants argued that the Michigan “Supreme Court in Rafaeli expressly foreclosed plaintiff’s claim because it held that ‘a former property owner has a compensable takings claim if and only if the tax-foreclosure sale produces a surplus.’” The court noted that here, “there was no public auction and there were no surplus proceeds.” In light of Rafaeli, plaintiff argued the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Hall “that the then-existing minimum-bid process was unconstitutional.” But the court noted that it was not bound by Hall, and even though it “may find Hall persuasive, we do not need to reach the merits of this case because plaintiff’s claim was untimely.” Defendants claimed “that MCL 211.78l required plaintiff to bring [its] claim within two years of the foreclosure.” The judgment of foreclosure was entered on 3/2/18, and plaintiff brought its claim on 4/1/21. Thus, over “two years elapsed between the judgment of foreclosure and plaintiff filing its claim.”