STARE DECISIS -THE RETROACTIVE EFFECT OF AN OVERRULING DECISION

Authors

Abstract

In 1923 the Supreme Court of Michigan ruled, in Kavanaugh v. Rabior, that property lying between the meander line and the waterline of the Great Lakes belonged to the State. The defendant, after this decision and upon the advice of the State Conservation Department, refused to pay rent to the plaintiff, the littoral proprietor. In 1930 the court, overruling the Kavanaugh case, held, in Hilt v. Weber, that such property belonged to the littoral proprietor. On the basis of this decision the plaintiff brought suit for use and occupation. Held, in the principal case, that the overruling Hilt decision being retroactive, the plaintiff must be considered as having been the owner during the entire period of defendant's occupation, and is therefore entitled to rent. Donohue v. Russell, 264 Mich. 217, 249 N. W. 830 (1933).

Recommended Citation

STARE DECISIS -THE RETROACTIVE EFFECT OF AN OVERRULING DECISION, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 1009 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss7/16