Expert Steel Co. v. City of Clawson

Plaintiff filed a bill of complaint in the Oakland county circuit court seeking to restrain the defendant city and its manager and employees, from interfering with plaintiff’s construction of an addition to its building. Plaintiff alleged it had a vested right to build under an old permit, and that it could not be divested of such right by a new zoning ordinance adopted by defendant city.

Defendant city answered denying that the building permit authorized the construction of the proposed addition. The city stated, as an affirmative defense, that the building permit was issued on the basis of…