Foreman v. Oakland County Treasurer

Plaintiffs commenced a class action in Oakland County Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of § 17 of Chapter 1 of Michigan’s Probate Code, being MCLA 701.17; MSA 27.3178(17) as amended through 1969. Specifically, plaintiffs claimed that the statutory fee schedule, as contained in subparagraph (1) of § 17 and payable under the language of subparagraph (3) of § 17 was in fact a tax or revenue raising scheme devised by the Legislature rather than a fee schedule to be collected as an expense of administration of probating decedents’ estates. Thus categorized, plaintiffs alleged that…