Yellow Freight System, Inc. v. Michigan
Plaintiff, an interstate freight company, sued the state of Michigan claiming that it collected registration fees in excess of the amount allowed under the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). ISTEA restricts a state’s registration fees to the amount ”equal to the fee . . . that such state collected or charged as of November 15, 1991.” Plaintiff argued that certain reciprocity agreements in place in 1991 should be honored under the ISTEA. The court of claims granted summary disposition for Plaintiff and the court of appeals affirmed. The Michigan Supreme Court reversed, holding that the state’s generic per vehicle registration fee in 1991 was the only relevant fee under the statute and that Michigan’s reciprocity agreements were irrelevant.
Question Presented:
Whether the Michigan Supreme Court erred in holding that, under the ISTEA, only a state's generic fee is relevant to determining the fee that was collected or charged as of November 15, 1991.
