Combustion Engineering, Inc v. Department of Treasury

Plaintiff appeals as of right the judgment for defendant entered by the Court of Claims.. We reverse.

The facts are undisputed. Plaintiff was the general contractor for the construction of a waste incinerator for the City of Detroit. To vendors or to defendant State of Michigan plaintiff paid sales and use taxes in excess of the total amount of sales or use tax due on the project. This excess amounted to $34,790 and represented sales tax paid by plaintiff to subcontractors on items later discovered to be exempt from taxation.

Defendant’s audit of plaintiff subsequently revealed that plaintiff…