Case Name: MacKENZIE v. FISHER BODY DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1973-06-28
Citations: 48 Mich. App. 175
Docket Number: Docket No. 14695
Parties: MacKENZIE v FISHER BODY DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION
Judges: Before: Bronson, P. J., and R. B. Burns and Van Valkenburg, JJ.
Reporter: Michigan appeals reports; cases decided in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Volume: 48
Pages: 175–180

Head Matter:
MacKENZIE v FISHER BODY DIVISION, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION
Opinion op the Court
1. Workmen’s Compensation — Appeal and Error — Finding op Fact.
Findings of fact of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeals Board, in the absence of fraud, are conclusive where there is evidence to support them; where there was conflicting expert testimony by several psychiatrists as to the cause of plaintiff’s disability, defendant’s psychiatrist testified that plaintiff’s disorder was caused by a personality disorder dating back to his youth, and the board found as a matter of fact that the disability was not caused by his work environment, the Court of Appeals is bound by such findings.
Dissent by Bronson, P. J.
2. Workmen’s Compensation — Psychoneurotic Disorders — Perception.
A plaintiff’s perception of bis work environment is indispensable in a workmen’s compensation case to an attempt to establish a causal relationship between his employment and a psychoneurotic disorder, and workmen’s compensation beneñts should not be denied on the basis of a distinction between the plaintiff’s subjective perception of the stresses and strains created by the working environment and an objective determination of whether such stresses or strains exist; the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board applies a fallacious legal standard where it fails to consider plaintiff’s perception of his work environment and its determination should be reviewed.
3. Workmen’s Compensation — Psychoneurotic Disorder — Perception.
The Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board applied a fallacious legal standard, in determining the cause of plaintiff’s nontraumatic psychoneurotic disorder where it failed to consider the plaintiff’s subjective perception of his work environment, since the question is not whether, by an objective standard, the job created pressures or difficulties for any employee, but rather whether the job created an impossible situation for the plaintiff.
References por Points in Headnotes
58 Am Jur, Workmen’s Compensation, §§ 529, 530.
58 Workmen’s Compensation, § 255.
Appeal from Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board.
Submitted Division 2 April 11, 1973, at Detroit.
(Docket No. 14695.)
Decided June 28, 1973.
Leave to appeal granted, 390 Mich —.
Harold K. MacKenzie presented his claim for workmen’s compensation against the Fisher Body Division of General Motors Corporation. Compensation denied. Plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Levine & Benjamin, P. C, for plaintiff.
Plunkett, Cooney, Butt & Peacock (by Edward K. Pedersen, Jr., and Leonard E. Nagi), for defendant.
Before: Bronson, P. J., and R. B. Burns and Van Valkenburg, JJ.
Former circuit judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment pursuant to Const Í963, art 6, § 23 as amended in 1968.

Opinion:
R. B. Burns, J.
This is an appeal from the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board.
Plaintiff was employed in the defendant's inspection and salvage department. He was responsible for tagging and returning defective production parts to suppliers. His job did not require him to make decisions whether parts were defective or not; he merely tagged those parts found to be defective by an inspector and packaged them for return to the supplier.
Two or three years before his retirement the plaintiff began to experience nervousness, anxiety, and fatigue in his work. At the hearing before the referee he referred to unspecific pressures by his supervisors, but was unable to relate any specific instances of pressure. Nor was he able to cite any specific instances to the two psychiatrists who examined him on behalf of respective counsel. The only specifics testified to by the plaintiff was the fact that his assistant was lazy, incompetent, and shunned responsibility, the responsibility then falling on plaintiff, and the fact that production workers on later shifts often used rejected parts already tagged and collected by him. Plaintiff's sensibilities were offended by what plaintiff considered to be the poor quality product manufactured by his company, production increases, and incompetent and indifferent new help hired by the company.
Plaintiff complained of a long history of irritability, loss of appetite, and inability to sleep. These symptoms persisted even three years after his retirement.
Psychiatrists called by both parties generally agreed that plaintiff had psychoneurotic problems and that he was disabled from working in an industrial environment. The experts were unable to agree as to the cause of plaintiff's condition, that is, whether the nervous condition was causally related to his employment. Both psychiatrists agreed that the plaintiff's condition was one of long standing.
Plaintiff's psychiatrist testified that the plaintiff was disabled and that his work was the cause of his disability.
Defendant's psychiatrist testified that plaintiff's neurotic state was internal and not related to his job.
The appeals board reversed the hearing referee's award, and stated:
"This is indeed a different case than Carter. In that matter, plaintiff was injured by an external force — his work environment. In this case,. plaintiff MacKenzie was disabled by something from within — that internal cause of his disability being a personality disorder dating back to his youth. We know of no case law that would permit compensation for plaintiff's perception of a work environment as injurious, when in fact that perception does not square with fact and the environment is shown not to be injurious."
In the Carter Case (Carter v General Motors Corp, 361 Mich 577; 106 NW2d 105 [1960]) the only expert who testified was a psychiatrist for the plaintiff. He testified that the plaintiff's disability was caused by emotional pressures produced by production line employment.
In the present case there was conflicting testimony before the board. The board chose to accept the testimony of the defendant's psychiatrist that the plaintiff's disability was caused by a personality disorder dating back to his youth. The board found as a matter of fact that the disability was not caused by his work environment.
Findings of fact of the appeals board are, in the absence of fraud, conclusive, where there is evidence to support them. Dean v Arrowhead Steel Products Co, Inc, 5 Mich App 691; 147 NW2d 751 (1967). This Court is bound by such findings.
Affirmed. Costs to defendant.
Van Valkenburg, J., concurred.