County of Wayne v. Hathcock
Michigan Supreme Court
684 N.W.2d 765 (2004)
- Written by John Yi, JD
Facts
In order to renovate its airport, Wayne County (plaintiff) received and used federal grant money to purchase properties in the airport’s vicinity through voluntary sales. A condition of the federal grant money was that properties acquired with the funds had to be put to commercial use. Hence, the county came up with a development plan to build a corporate mall, a hotel, a conference center, and recreational facilities on those lands. The plan was expected to create 30,000 jobs and generate $350 million in tax revenue from a broader tax base of industrial, service, and technology sectors. After purchasing about 1,000 acres, the county began condemnation proceedings to purchase 19 additional lots so that it would have contiguous property for development. Hathcock and the other holdover owners (defendants) contested the proposed condemnations as not being for a “public purpose” as mandated by the state constitution. The trial court found that the proposed development constituted a public purpose. The court of appeals affirmed, and the Supreme Court granted Hathcock’s appeal from the appellate court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Young, J.)
Concurrence (Weaver, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 830,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,400 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
