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Michigan’s public universities didn’t have to pay refunds to students after forcing them into remote learning during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled, according to The Detroit Free Press.
The ruling upheld a prior ruling by the Michigan Court of Claims.
“The tuition contracts assessed fees as the result of registration, not as the result of receiving services,” the court said. “We find no error in the trial court’s conclusion that unambiguous terms of the tuition contract rendered students liable for paying tuition once they registered for classes. In all cases consolidated on appeal, the university plaintiffs claim the university defendants breached their agreements by failing to provide live, in-person instruction. The university plaintiffs, however, have pointed to no contractual language in which the university defendants promised such method of instruction.”
The ruling consolidated three cases, filed by students against Central Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and Lake Superior State University. In all the cases, a student argued that he or she should have gotten refunds when, at the start of the pandemic, students were sent home.
