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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


FARMERS INSURANCE GROUP, Plaintiff-Appellant, v DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, Defendant-Appellee.

UNPUBLISHED May 17, 2005

No. 252488 Ingham Circuit Court LC No. 02-000229-MM

Before: Murphy, P.J., and White and Smolenski, JJ. PER CURIAM. Plaintiff Farmers Insurance Group appeals as of right from the trial court order granting summary disposition in favor of defendant pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(8). We affirm. This appeal is being decided without oral argument pursuant to MCR 7.214(E). This case arose when an abandoned building in Detroit, which had reverted to the state because of delinquent taxes, caught fire and spread to an adjacent property. Plaintiff filed suit seeking to recoup funds it paid to its insured, the owner of the adjacent building, as a result of the fire. The complaint alleged that defendant is liable to plaintiff based on a trespass-nuisance theory and because defendant's failure to abate the fire hazard existing in its building amounted to an unconstitutional taking or inverse condemnation of the neighboring property.1 On appeal, plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in granting defendant's motion for summary disposition because the Takings Clause2 of the Michigan Constitution was triggered

The trial court granted summary disposition of plaintiff's trespass-nuisance claim based on MCR 2.116(C)(7). It correctly noted that, pursuant to our Supreme Court's decision in Pohutski v City of Allen Park, 465 Mich 675, 689-690; 641 NW2d 219 (2002), such claims against government agencies are barred by governmental immunity under MCL 691.1407(1). Plaintiff does not challenge this ruling on appeal.
2

1

The Takings Clause, Const 1963, art 10,

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Michigan Law