Case ID: mich-app_70/html/0565-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "T. M. Burns, P. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

MICHIGAN SELF-INSURERS’ ASSOCIATION v BUREAU OF WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION
    Workmen’s Compensation — Employer’s Right to Appeal — Restrictions — Reimbursement—Appeal and Error — Constitutional Law — Statutes.
    After an award of compensation to a workmen’s compensation claimant has been reversed on appeal, a workmen’s compensation statute places no restrictions on an employer’s or an insurance carrier’s right to reimbursement of money paid to the claimant, therefore the statute is not unconstitutional as a denial of the right to appeal the decisions of an administrative agency (Const 1963, art 6, §28, MCLA 418.862; MSA 17.237[862]).
    Reference for Points in Headnote
    82 Am Jur 2d, Workmen’s Compensation § 613 et seq.
    
    Appeal from Ingham, James T. Kallman, J.
    Submitted May 7, 1976, at Detroit.
    (Docket No. 26914.)
    Decided August 5, 1976.
    Leave to appeal granted, 397 Mich 859.
    Complaint by Michigan Self-Insurers’ Association against the State of Michigan, Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation, Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, and the Second Injury Fund seeking a judgment declaring a workmen’s compensation statute unconstitutional and injunctive relief to prevent the enforcement of the statute. Summary judgment for plaintiff. Defendants appeal.
    Reversed and injunction dissolved.
    
      Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn (by Robert A. Fineman and Stanley Siegel), for plaintiff.
    
      Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Robert A. 
      
      Derengoski, Solicitor General, and E. J. Setlock, Assistant Attorney General, for defendants.
    Amicus Curiae: Kelman, Loria, Downing, Schneider & Simpson (by Robert W. Howes), for Michigan AFL-CIO.
    Before: T. M. Burns, P. J., and R. B. Burns and V. J. Brennan, JJ.
   T. M. Burns, P. J.

Defendants appeal as of right from the December 8, 1975, order of the Ingham County Circuit Court granting a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff and declaring unconstitutional 1975 PA 34; MCLA 418.862; MSA 17.237(862), and permanently enjoining enforcement of the act by the defendants.

This Court’s opinion in Turner v General Motors, 70 Mich App 532; 246 NW2d 631 (1976), answers the meritorious issues raised by the parties to this appeal.

The trial court found that 1975 PA 34 violated Const 1963, art 6, § 28, by denying plaintiff’s right to appeal from administrative action. The court based its decision on its reading of 1975 PA 34 as denying the plaintiff the right of reimbursement when a workmen’s compensation award is reversed on appeal. The court found that 1975 PA 34 gives an employee an absolute right to payments regardless of the outcome of any appeal taken.

We must read 1975 PA 34 in light of the constitutional right to appeal decisions and findings of any administrative officer or agency. In preserving the constitutionality of 1975 PA 34, we find in it no restriction of the employer’s or carrier’s right to reimbursement from the employee-claimant of moneys paid under an award reversed on appeal. So construed the act is not invalid under Const 1963, art 6, § 28. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is reversed and the injunction is hereby dissolved. No costs.