2026-09-12 · Michigan · Courts

What happened. The Michigan Supreme Court granted leave, took briefing and argument, and then on 9 July 2025 affirmed by equal division of the Court in Melvin R. Berlin Revocable Trust v Rubin, SC No. 166228.¹

That disposition is the whole story, and it is routinely reported as though the Court had decided something. It did not.

What an equal-division affirmance means

Three justices would affirm, three would reverse, and the judgment below stands. It sets no Supreme Court precedent. The decision it leaves in place — a Court of Appeals per curiam issued 20 July 2023, Docket No. 359300 — was itself unpublished, and under MCR 7.215(C)(1) an unpublished Michigan opinion is not precedentially binding either.

So after a full grant of leave in Michigan's highest court, the state's operative law on whether a “single family residence purposes” covenant bars short-term rentals still rests where it did: on Court of Appeals authority.

The lineup, which is the interesting part

Justice Welch concurred to affirm, joined by Justice Zahra. Justice Thomas dissented and would have reversed, joined by Chief Justice Cavanagh and Justice Bolden. Justice Hood did not participate, the case having been considered before he took office.

Notably, Justice Welch — who voted to affirm — expressly disagreed with the Court of Appeals' reasoning that a summer home cannot constitute a permanent residence where the owner's domicile is elsewhere, and would narrow O'Connor v Resort Custom Builders on that point. Justice Thomas would have found no unambiguous exclusion, noting that the high courts of thirteen sister states read analogous covenants the other way.

1. Melvin R. Berlin Revocable Trust v Rubin, Mich Sup Ct No. 166228 — order affirming by equal division, 9 July 2025 ↩
2. Timber Lake Drive Property Owners' Ass'n v Gribi, Mich Ct App No. 369520 (18 Sept 2025, unpublished) ↩