Our office has spent years fighting for the rights of former property owners in Michigan tax foreclosure and surplus proceeds cases. This post continues our series on the court decisions, past and present, that have shaped that fight.

In a published decision on October 20, 2025, the Michigan Court of Appeals decided In re Petition of Montcalm County Treasurer (the Rivera and Jones case). The Montcalm County Treasurer tried to take its own lawyer fees out of the money it owed two former owners — fees it ran up fighting their claims in court. The court said no: the law lets a county deduct the costs of foreclosing and selling a property, but not the cost of lawyers hired to argue over who gets the money. The court also said the county’s job in these claims is to gather and hand over information, not to fight the former owner.

These decisions have real impact on real people. In this case, the treasurer wanted to keep $16,856.49 of the $19,693.50 it owed the Rivera estate. (The trial court awarded the estate the full amount, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.)

An important takeaway from this ruling is "“the Legislature did not intend for the proceeding to be adversarial."

We have attached the entire Opinion at the link, for the interest of our clients or the general public.

Jones Rivera Court of Appeals Opinion