Opinion ID: 619531
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Michigan Deed Recording Statute claim

Text: The Moloskys have failed to state a claim under the Michigan Deed Recording Statute, M.C.L. § 565.41, because the plain meaning of M.C.L. § 565.41 requires only that the mortgagee pay a recording fee when it discharges the mortgage. It says nothing about prohibiting mortgagees from recouping that fee later on. The only express cause of action the statute provides appears in a companion section; it declares a mortgagee liable to a mortgagor if the mortgagee fails to discharge the mortgage properly. M.C.L. § 565.44. Since a statute's plain meaning must be understood by looking at the language and design of the statute as a whole, we must consider the statute as a whole to clarify potential ambiguity. United States v. Choice, 201 F.3d 837, 840 (6th Cir.2000) (quoting United States v. Meyers, 952 F.2d 914, 918 (6th Cir.1992)). M.C.L. § 565.44 makes it clear that the legislature intended to create a cause of action only when a mortgagee refuses or neglects to discharge the mortgage as provided. Id. There is no discernible purpose in the statute for prohibiting the charging of a recording fee to the borrower. The conclusion that the legislature did not intend to forbid the charging of recording fees through M.C.L. § 565.41 is strengthened by comparing the statute to another Michigan statute. M.C.L. § 438.31a explicitly allows a bank to charge recording fees to recoup those it has paid, forbidding only the billing to a borrower of a charge for inspection required by a local unit of government. Although the section does not apply to federally chartered savings and loan associations, and so is not applicable directly to this case, the section's explicit prohibition of inspection charges stands in marked contrast to both its allowance of recording fees and M.C.L. § 565.41's silence with respect to recording fees. If two statutes are capable of co-existence, the court should construe them as such. See Beckert v. Our Lady of Angels Apartments, Inc., 192 F.3d 601, 606 (6th Cir.1999). To read M.C.L. § 565.41 to prohibit mortgagees from charging recording fees would place it in direct contradiction with M.C.L. § 438.31a in every case that does not involve a federal savings and loan association. M.C.L. § 565.41 does not prohibit the charging of recording fees, and so the Moloskys have failed to state a claim.