12/5/12 - Although the legal battle continues, an attorney says an appeals court ruling finding a section of Brighton City ordinance unconstitutional is a victory for an elderly Northville couple. Dennis Dubuc represents Leon and Marilyn Bonner, who own two homes on North Street that the City ordered demolished in January of 2009 based on its ordinance. Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Michael Hatty found that ordinance unconstitutional and the City appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which has issued an opinion upholding Hattyâs ruling. It deemed a section of the ordinance violated substantive due process, specifically the portion that permits the city to have an unsafe structure demolished as a public nuisance, without providing the owner the option to repair it. Dubuc tells WHMI there is nothing wrong with the homes; itâs just the Bonners have just been prevented by the city from fixing them up or occupying them. More recently, Hatty ruled the Bonnerâs lost their non-conforming use of the property as residential because they havenât lived in the homes or rented them out. Dubuc is appealing that decision, saying there has never been intent by the Bonnerâs to abandon their property. He says the City shut off water service to both homes years ago and never turned it back on so theyâve been prevented from using the property, even though they maintained and heated the homes, paid taxes and cut the lawns for all these years. Dubuc is also seeking a stay of proceedings from the appeals court in an attempt to stop the process of the Bonners being ordered to bring the homes up to commercial standards - Hatty denied his request for a stay in late November. The parties are set to appear in Livingston County Circuit Court on December 14th, which Dubuc says was scheduled by Judge Hatty to check on the status of their applications for the commercial permits they were ordered to apply for. A link to the opinion released by the Court of Appeals can be found below. (JM)
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