Cosgrove v. Lansing Board of Education

FACTS

Plaintiffs appeal as of right from an order granting defendants’ motion for summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(4) on the ground that the circuit court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction in this case.

Plaintiffs comprise a group of fifteen teachers employed by the Lansing School District. When the defendant union was organizing in 1972, it included a grandfather clause in its collective bargaining agreement that exempted plaintiffs from paying dues or an equivalent service fee to the union. In 1984, the defendant union and employer did not include that clause in its renegotiated…