This is a brief summary of Trial Court and Court of Appeals decisions relating to the Common Law obligations of Johnson’s Island Property Owners to pay their proportionate share of road and causeway repair and maintenance expenses.
In a series of court cases in 2020 and 2021, the Ottawa County Trial Court and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District for Ottawa County determined, and affirmed, that property owners on Johnson’s Island have a common law obligation to contribute to the maintenance and repair of Island roads and causeway; (ii) the Johnson’s Island Road Commission has undertaken appropriate and necessary repairs on the roads and causeway; (iii) it is equitable to define proportionate share of the expense as an equal share (1/300) for each property owner on Johnson’s Island; (iv) administrative costs of JIPOA and the Road Commission are approved as necessary costs of repairing and maintaining the roads; and (v) the very few property owners who have refused to pay their road fees have been “unjustly enriched” by their refusal to pay the invoices for causeway and road repairs and maintenance.
The broad effect of this decision is that there is now a final court precedent that property owners on Johnson’s Island have a common law obligation to contribute their proportionate share of the cost to maintain and repair Island roads and causeway, and the courts have concluded that it is fair and equitable to define proportionate share as an equal share for each property owner on the Island. The courts have also determined, after hearing extensive testimony, that the Road Commission has performed appropriate and necessary repairs on the roads and causeway.