RBMS Security Committee: State Laws: Michigan
The RBMS Security Committee attempts to maintain a current list of statutes from each of the fifty states pertaining to library thefts or other criminal acts involving library and archival materials (view index). Following are the relevant laws for the state of Michigan:
Michigan Penal Code, Act 328 of 1931, 750.364 Larceny from libraries
Sec. 364. Any person who shall procure, or take in any way from any public library or the library of any literary, scientific, historical or library society or association, whether incorporated or unincorporated, any book, pamphlet, map, chart, painting, picture, photograph, periodical, newspaper, magazine, manuscript or exhibit or any part thereof, with intent to convert the same to his own use, or with intent to defraud the owner thereof, or who having procured or taken any such book, pamphlet, map, chart, painting, picture, photograph, periodical, newspaper, magazine, manuscript or exhibit or any part thereof, shall thereafter convert the same to his own use or fraudulently deprive the owner thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Michigan Penal Code, Act 328 of 1931, 750.391 Maliciously injuring or mutilating library books
Sec. 391.Any person who shall wilfully, maliciously or wantonly tear, deface or mutilate or write upon, or by other means injure or mar any book, pamphlet, map, chart, painting, picture, photograph, periodical, newspaper, magazine, manuscript or exhibit or any part thereof belonging to or loaned to any public library, or to the library of any literary, scientific, historical or library society or association, whether incorporated or unincorporated, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Michigan Revised Judicature Act of 1961, Act 236, 600.2917 Liability of library, merchant, agent, or independent contractor for conduct involving person suspected of larceny of goods or library materials, or of violating 750.356c or 750.356d; definitions.
Sec. 2917. (1) In a civil action against a library or merchant, an agent of the library or merchant, or an independent contractor providing security for the library or merchant for false imprisonment, unlawful arrest, assault, battery, libel, or slander, if the claim arises out of conduct involving a person suspected of removing or of attempting to remove, without right or permission, goods held for sale in a store from the store or library materials from a library, or of violating section 356c or 356d of the Michigan penal code, Act No. 328 of the Public Acts of 1931, being sections 750.356c and 750.356d of the Michigan Compiled Laws, and if the merchant, library, agent, or independent contractor had probable cause for believing and did believe that the plaintiff had committed or aided or abetted in the larceny of goods held for sale in the store, or of library materials, or in the violation of section 356c or 356d of Act No. 328 of the Public Acts of 1931, damages for or resulting from mental anguish or punitive, exemplary, or aggravated damages shall not be allowed a plaintiff, unless it is proved that the merchant, library, agent, or independent contractor used unreasonable force, detained the plaintiff an unreasonable length of time, acted with unreasonable disregard of the plaintiff's rights or sensibilities, or acted with intent to injure the plaintiff.
(2) As used in this section:
(a) Library includes a public library; a library of an educational, historical, or eleemosynary institution or organization; a museum; an archive; and a repository of public records or historical records, or both.
(b) Library material includes a plate; picture; photograph; engraving; painting; drawing; map; newspaper; book; magazine; pamphlet; broadside; manuscript; document; letter; public record; microfilm; sound recording; audiovisual material; magnetic or other tape; optical storage disc or other recording medium; electronic data processing record; artifact; and other documentary, written, or printed material.
See Michigan statutes online at: http://www.michiganlegislature.org/.
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