Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

Terms Used In Michigan Laws 280.272

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • drain: whenever used in this act , shall include the main stream or trunk and all tributaries or branches of any creek or river, any watercourse or ditch, either open or closed, any covered drain, any sanitary or any combined sanitary and storm sewer or storm sewer or conduit composed of tile, brick, concrete, or other material, any structures or mechanical devices, that will properly purify the flow of such drains, any pumping equipment necessary to assist or relieve the flow of such drains and any levee, dike, barrier, or a combination of any or all of same constructed, or proposed to be constructed, for the purpose of drainage or for the purification of the flow of such drains, but shall not include any dam and flowage rights used in connection therewith which is used for the generation of power by a public utility subject to regulation by the public service commission. See Michigan Laws 280.3
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
     In any suit brought for the collection of any unpaid drain taxes by virtue of section 271, the commissioner bringing such suit may declare in an action of assumpsit against the defendant; proof of the amount of the tax, and that it is unpaid, either oral or by the production of the tax roll, shall be prima facie evidence of the plaintiff‘s right to recover; but the defendant may plead the general issue and give evidence in reduction of damages, and the plaintiff may offer evidence in rebuttal, and if it shall appear from such evidence that the actual benefits to the land by reason of the construction of the drain were less than the amount of the tax, judgment shall be only for the amount of the benefits as proven, with interest and costs: Provided, That no such proceedings shall be instituted by the commissioner at the expense of the county unless he shall be authorized to do so by the board of supervisors.