***Important News Update ... potentially the most significant Michigan Court of Appeals decision affecting Michigan riparians in a generation or more 

*** Action Alert!... The Disastrous Parallel Road Decision

*** An Attorney Writes - Parallel Roads at Lakes Case

MI Court of Appeals Rules in 2000 Baum Family Trust v. Babel Case

On June 23, 2009, the Michigan Court of Appeals issued a lake waterfront decision which could have dramatic consequences for tens of thousands of properties at lakes throughout Michigan.  In its opinion in the 2000 Baum Family Trust v Babel opinion (Case No. 284547), the Court essentially held that lots or properties located along plat-dedicated public roads that parallel the lakeshore in Michigan are generally not riparian or lakefront properties. 

In the past, courts throughout Michigan have generally concluded that where a public road runs parallel to a lake and there was no intervening property between the road right-of-way and the lake when the plat created the road, the “first tier” of lots on the public road are lakefront or riparian.  It has long been assumed that the owners of those first tier lots have exclusive rights to dockage, boat mooring, and other riparian activities located across the road at the shoreline.  For most such lots, the decision in the 2000 Baum case means that those lots are no longer lakefront or riparian properties and may not be able to utilize dockage or boat moorage or engage in similar riparian activities at the adjacent lakeshore.

If this case ends up before the Michigan Supreme Court, the Michigan Lake & Stream Associations, Inc. and Michigan Waterfront Alliance, Inc. anticipate filing an amicus curiae brief in favor of the first tier lot owners.  This case is potentially the most significant riparian decision issued in Michigan in a generation or more.  This decision could also have unbelievably negative ramifications for first tier lot owners throughout the state.  Learn about this significant riparian rights case in the August 2009 issue of The Michigan Riparian. 

To read the Court of Appeals Brief, click here..
To read the entire Michigan Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in this case, click here…                                                                          

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