Opinion ID: 1976846
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Meaning of Kleinschrodt

Text: This Court's holding in Kleinschrodt that defendant had waived the defense of the one-year-back rule, MCL 418.833; MSA 17.237(833), by failing to raise it before the appeal board was expressly limited to the circumstances of that case. In Kleinschrodt, the hearing referee had ordered disability payments for a scheduled loss that occurred ten years before the claim had been filed. Thus, the decision involved liability for a time period that exceeded the limitations of the one-year-back rule, and it would have been both appropriate and indeed necessary to raise the rule as a defense to liability at the time of appeal. However, on appeal to the WCAB, General Motors not only failed to raise what may have been the complete defense of the one-year-back rule, it specifically limited the issues to be considered by the board to the question of disability. Although the Court divided over whether the one-year-back rule is a jurisdictional limitation on the authority of the WCAB or a waivable defense, [26] the majority interpreted the provision as a nonjurisdictional defense, akin to the statute of limitations, which can be waived. Id. However, in its per curiam opinion, the Court noted and expressly relied upon the defendant's stipulation as to the single issue in finding the defense had been waived.