A copy of the report must be sent to each party who has appeared in the action.
If the owner of the dower interest or life estate is unknown, the court shall order the protection of the person's rights in the same manner, as far as possible, as if he or she were known and had appeared.
The court shall hear the proofs, determine the rights of the parties, and direct who must pay the costs of the trial.
After ascertaining the amount of existing encumbrances, the court shall order the distribution of the money held by the clerk among the creditors having encumbrances, according to their priority. When paying an encumbrance the clerk must procure satisfaction of the encumbrance, acknowledged in the form required by law, and must record the satisfaction of the encumbrance. The clerk may pay the expenses of these services out of the portion of the money in court that belongs to the party by whom the encumbrance was payable.
The proceedings under this subrule to ascertain and settle the amounts of encumbrances do not affect other parties to the proceedings for partition and do not delay the payment to a party whose estate in the premises is not subject to an encumbrance or the investing of the money for the benefit of such a person.
The clerk must hold them and deliver them to his or her successor, and must receive the interest and principal as they become due and apply or reinvest them, as the court directs. The clerk shall annually give to the court a written, sworn account of the money received and the disposition of it.
A security, bond, note, mortgage, or other evidence of the investment may not be discharged, transferred, or impaired by an act of the clerk without the order of the court. A person interested in an investment, with the leave of the court, may prosecute it in the name of the existing clerk, and an action is not abated by the death, removal from office, or resignation of the clerk to whom the instruments were executed or the clerk's successors.
Mich. Ct. R. 3.403