Opinion ID: 848910
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Meaning of Receive or Will Receive

Text: The Court of Appeals also stated, in dictum, that even if plaintiff's distribution were a retirement benefit, it was exempt from coordination because the Legislature did not intend the terms `receive or will receive' under § 27(f)(1) to include the direct rollover of a pension fund to an IRA.... The Court stated: This construction of the statute is the most reasonable and comports with the benefit interpretations of both the UA and the USDOL. MESC Revised Benefit Interpretation No. 20.641 (November 29, 1995); USDOL Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 22-87, Change 1 (June 19, 1995). In reaching our conclusion, we are mindful that the role of the judiciary is not to engage in judicial legislation, but rather to determine the way chosen by the Legislature. [Citation omitted.] We decline to interpret the statute to incorporate any change that overrides requirements clearly adopted by the Legislature. [239 Mich.App at 47, 607 N.W.2d 395.] While this issue is one of first impression in the context of unemployment compensation, it has been addressed in the somewhat analogous context of worker's compensation. White v. McLouth Steel Products, decided sub nom Corbett v. Plymouth Twp., 453 Mich. 522, 556 N.W.2d 478 (1996). [7] In White, this Court construed M.C.L. § 418.354(1)(d), of the Worker's Disability Compensation Act, M.C.L. § 418.101 et seq., which directs that worker's compensation benefits be coordinated with [t]he after-tax amount of the pension or retirement payments received or being received.... The employee in White rolled his lump-sum pension distribution into an IRA. The question was whether the nontaxable nature of the rollover transfer precluded coordination of the retirement payments with the worker's compensation benefits. This Court ruled in favor of the employee. It rejected as literalism the employer's contention that the employee received the transferred amount. This Court also stated that its interpretation was consistent with the language of M.C.L. § 418.354(1)(d), limiting coordination to the after-tax amount of the pension: By reason of the tax-free aspect of a rollover into an IRA, there is no taxable event and, hence, no tax or after-tax amount that is received or being received. [ Id. at 547, 556 N.W.2d 478.]