Winery Lawsuit Update: Peninsula Township Files Appeal, Five Groups File Amicus Briefs in Support of Township

The ongoing winery lawsuit is currently making its way through the appeals process in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati.

On July 7, 2025, Judge Paul K. Maloney, who has presided over the case from the U.S. District Court’s Western Michigan District, released a 75-page Bench Opinion in which the court awarded nearly $50 million in damages to the Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula (WOMP) who filed a lawsuit against Peninsula Township back in 2020.

On Feb. 13, 2026, the Township filed its 100-page appeal, which states in part:

“This case went off the rails at vagueness and never recovered. The District Court invalidated narrow, economic land-use provisions that granted additional, permissive uses without engaging the text of the ordinance, without applying the correct level of scrutiny, and based on anecdotal confusion by former Township representatives. That legal error became dispositive. After refusing to revisit this ruling after PTP intervened, the District Court then attributed all of Plaintiffs’ alleged economic losses to that supposed defect — despite undisputed evidence that Plaintiffs’ agricultural zoning was an independent barrier to the commercial uses they seek.

“The Constitution simply does not permit a $49.2 million damages award untethered from causation and the law. The law also does not permit an award of compensatory damages for gross profits based on speculative projections for businesses Plaintiffs never operated and could not lawfully operate independent of the very permissive zoning provisions they challenged. These errors alone require reversal and entry of judgment in favor of the Township.

“But the errors do not stop there. Plaintiffs’ as-applied and regulatory takings claims were not ripe for lack of finality, were barred in substantial part by the statute of limitations, and unsupported by proof of causation. The District Court further erred in its First Amendment analysis, its conclusion on Dormant Commerce Clause, and in its preemption rulings.

“Wherefore, the Township requests that this Court vacate the District Court’s judgment, reverse its liability findings on the constitutional and state-law claims, and direct entry of judgment in the Township’s favor.”

Read the full appeal here, read all winery lawsuit stories and opinions on the Gazette here, and view all court filings and related documents on the Township’s website here.

Five Amicus Briefs Filed in Support of Township

In February 2026, five organizations have added their voice to the lawsuit by filing amicus briefs with the Sixth Circuit in support of Peninsula Township and Protect the Peninsula, who successfully petitioned to intervene in the case.

An amicus brief (the term comes from “amicus curiae” which means “friend of the court”) serves to raise the court’s awareness of a public interest that extends beyond the interests of the litigating parties. Amicus briefs may be filed in cases that might set precedent beyond those immediately affected by a decision. The winery lawsuit here on the Old Mission Peninsula will have far-reaching affects beyond our township.

Most often filed by academic institutions, government entities, non-profits, and trade associations, an amicus brief helps guide the court’s decision even though the filer is a non-party in the case.

The five organizations submitting amicus briefs are:

International Municipal Lawyers Association

The nation’s largest and oldest organization devoted to the advancement of local government law comprises more than 2,500 local government entities, including cities, counties, state municipal leagues, and individual attorneys.

From the Brief: “As articulated above, this appeal challenges a holding that melds inaccurate facts with erroneous law. Relying on contrived financial data and an improper gross profits metric, it freighted the Township with an unconscionable damages award. To do so, the trial court wrongfully elevated the Plaintiffs’ ‘reasonable business expectations’ to a constitutionally protected status over the Township’s planning and zoning authority. The court unlawfully substituted its judgment for that of the Township Board to allow the additional events the Plaintiffs sought. Concerned primarily with the Plaintiffs’ ability to maximize profits, the court violated ‘Central Hudson,’ disregarding ample evidence that the zoning ordinance reasonably advanced the Township’s legitimate governmental interests.”

Read the full brief here.

Michigan Municipal League

This group champions the improvement of municipal governement and administration statewide, and comprises hundreds of Michigan cities and villages.

From the Brief: “Hotels, motels, and restaurants, and non-farm retail sales, while important, have not been recognized as land uses under Michigan law which have a special status for priority protection. Accordingly, there is no basis in the law for the Trial Court to have given dramatically superior treatment for the uses Plaintiffs would like to be able to conduct and expand on their properties as compared to the agricultural uses intended by Peninsula Township to be preserved, and declared to be of ‘paramount public concern’ in Art. 4, §52 of the Michigan Constitution.

“The Trial Court diminished the relevance of the very natural resource interests that the Peninsula Township Board (and Planning Commission) have sought for decades to preserve, in the form of unique agricultural resources on the Peninsula. Concurrently, without legal basis, the Trial Court elevated Plaintiffs’ retail-enterprise interests above the natural resource preservation interests legislatively enacted by the Township. This unsupported transposition of rights by the Trial Court amount to material and reversible error.”

Read the full brief here.

Governmental Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan

This organization comprises some 860 attorneys who represent the interests of government corporations, including cities, villages, townships and counties, boards and commissions, and special authorities.

From the Brief: “The entire program of zoning regulation in Peninsula Township — established decades ago and resulting in the successful preservation of agricultural resources and character on the Peninsula — was dismissed by the Trial Court without a review consistent with long-established precedent, and on the basis of speculative and arbitrary feelings of the Court resting on extra-legal considerations like the finding that the zoning on the Peninsula ‘was never about preserving farmland or rural character. These provisions were designed to keep land prices lower so the Township could purchase more development rights, which would again, protect NIMBY landowners.’ Bench Opinion, ECF No. 623 at PageID.31463.”

Read the full brief here.

American Farmland Trust

This national nonprofit organization focuses on land protection, agricultural practices, and farmers and ranchers. They’ve helped to permanently protect more than 8 million acres of agricultural land, advance environmentally sound farming practices on millions of additional acres, and support thousands of farm families.

Additionally, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the group helped to lay the groundwork for permanent farmland protection in the Township, by first acquiring the Murray Farm (now the Ridgewood trail system/Old Mission State Park) — a 507 acre locally significant property possessing prime cherry-growing land and shoreline access — saving it from residential development after bank foreclosure. Later AFT partnered with local leaders to help establish the Township’s Purchase of Development Rights program. Today AFT holds agricultural conservation easements on three Peninsula Township farms, totaling 746 acres.

From the Brief: “Under the district court’s loose reasoning, a winery could operate a fast-food restaurant on its property as the service of hamburgers would be ‘incidental’ to agriculture because the beef would have necessarily been sourced from cows, or a wedding would be related to agriculture because the bride’s bouquet was grown in a greenhouse.”

Read the full brief here.

Michigan Townships Association

This nonprofit corporation, whose membership consists of more than 98 percent of the 1,240 townships in the State of Michigan, advances local democracy by fostering township leadership and public policy. The MTA was established in 1953 and is widely recognized for its years of experience and expertise regarding township issues.

From the Brief: “The Wineries’ alleged damages stem from their confusion over whether or to what extent they could host certain small and large events. But as these cases make clear, the Township was entirely within its authority to completely prohibit the small and large events that the Wineries sought to host. The winery properties were not rendered completely unusable or unmarketable as zoned, as evidenced by their years of continued operations before and during the pendency of this case. Although they are clearly upset that they cannot turn a maximum profit from their land, such is not a right they are afforded under Michigan zoning law.”

Read the full Brief here.