Name/Title
Michigan v Mary Kay Bettles and Ox-BowEntry/Object ID
2017.31.16Scope and Content
Photocopy of an Amicus brief for Michigan Supreme Court Case No. 67197, People of the State of Michigan v The Summer School of Painting at Saugatuck, Inc. and Mary Kay Bettles.
The 15-page document is dated January 31, 1983 and contains an index of authorities, introduction, argument, conclusion and relief plus five additional pages of resolutions by the Village of Saugatuck Board of Trustees and deeds.
An additional loose page is a map of the cottages and studios at Ox-Bow that was likely not part of the brief.Context
This is one document in a multi-year, multi-appeal legal battle to decide who may have access to the Ox-Bow lagoon.
This amicus or "friend of the court" brief was submitted by the Michigan Attorney General Frank J. Kelley, Solicitor General Louis J. Caruso, and Asst. Attorneys General Terrence P. Grady and Russel E. Prins of the Lands, Lakes and Leases Division in Lansing, who were all not parties in the case but had a strong interest in any precedent the case may establish.
The state of Michigan's opinion was that the Ox-Bow lagoon it is a public lake with a navigable entrance because a recreational boat with passengers aboard can pass through it without touching bottom. Therefore it is illegal for the defendants to interfere with public access to the lake.
The defendants in the case included people who owned the property around the lagoon, the Summer School of Painting [Ox-Bow] and Mary Kay Bettles. They maintained that the lagoon is private because the swamp that connected the lagoon to the Kalamazoo River is not navigable and because the body of water is completely surrounded by private land. They felt public has no right to use the lagoon and so it was within their rights to prohibit its use.
The conclusion of the amicus brief reads "The Court of Appeals has erroneously concluded that the subject body of water is a "private lake", erroneously assuming that the title to all land riparian [on the edge of a body of water] to the subject "lake" is in private ownership. The opinion and order of the court, if not reversed, will result in a manifest injustice to the people depriving them of their right to utilize such waters for boating, bathing and other recreational pursuits."
In the end, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear this case. Instead it instructed the appeal court to reconsider the case in the light of a similar ruling about definition of navigable lakes.Collection
Development, land, Nature, ecology, the landscape, Development, resistance to, 1910 Ox-BowCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2017.31Source or Donor
Spencer, Chris Tracy 1943-2022Acquisition Method
DonationArchive Details
Date(s) of Creation
Jan 31, 1983Location
Filing cabinet
Files Accession NumberRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Old Harbor/Channel piers pre-1906/Ox-Bow Lagoon, Bettles, Mary Katherine 1910-1984, Ox-Bow/Summer School of ArtCreate Date
December 1, 2022Update Date
March 24, 2025
