SHUT DOWN
Bernadette Atuahene, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Center, speaks at a press conference on February 13, 2020 at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center where housing rights activists and elected officials announced a federal class action lawsuit against the city of Detroit for belatedly Property tax notices in 2017. The lawsuit is one of several appeals brought in the post-Great Recession years for the city’s inflated property tax bills. (Photo: Joe Guillen / Detroit Free Press)
A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Detroit for late delivery of more than 260,000 residential property tax returns in 2017.
The late deliveries violated the legal rights of all Detroit homeowners because they were unable to appeal their property taxes according to the lawsuit filed last year.
However, U.S. District Court judge Nancy Edmunds dismissed the case in part because she ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to resolve disputes within state tax systems. Edmunds noted that Detroit homeowners had other options under state law and that the city was extending the timeframe for appeals due to late announcements.
“Since there is a state remedy that is simple, quick and efficient, this court, a federal court, does not have material jurisdiction over these claims,” Edmunds wrote in her statement.
The Chicago law firm Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum’s lawsuit also named Mayor Mike Duggan, Assistant CFO / Assessor Alvin Horhn, Wayne County, and state tax officers as defendants.
More: Class lawsuit filed for late property tax notices in Detroit
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In a statement, Horhn said, “The case never had any value.”
“We are pleased that the judge saw how quickly the city found a simple and efficient solution to ensure that any homeowner who wanted to appeal their assessment had the time it took,” it said in his statement.
Sam Schoenburg, one of the lawyers representing homeowners in Detroit, declined to comment on Friday to dismiss the lawsuit.
Contact Joe Guillen: jguillen@freepress.com.
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