Pontiac — Oakland Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris ruled Tuesday that compensation owed to property owners unjustly foreclosed upon will not be retroactive prior to a July 2020 decision of the Michigan Supreme Court. The case filed by two homeowners against Oakland County was the flagship that helped set a new Supreme Court precedent for how counties handled tax foreclosures. So Oakland County's decision came as a blow to advocates who believed the Supreme Court's ruling would apply to a bevy of cases across the state that predated the July 2020 opinion. The state's high court in summer 2020 had ruled then-Oakland County Treasurer Andrew Meisner was involved in an “unconstitutional taking without just compensation” under the Michigan constitution when he foreclosed on a property for $8.41 in unpaid taxes. The Southfield property at issue was later sold at county auction and the county kept all funds.