Court Opinion

ID: 9728775
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:16:15.527471+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:52.009936
License: Public Domain

Allen, P.J.
(concurring). I concur in the result *365in this case but believe it necessary to emphasize the limited nature of the holding in Reliance Insurance Co v Messina Trucking, Inc, 83 Mich App 159; 268 NW2d 328 (1978), and hence the limited nature of the holding in the instant case.
Section 827(5) of the Workers Disability Compensation Act, MCL 418.827(5); MSA 17.237(827)(5), provides that an employer or workers compensation insurance carrier shall be reimbursed for its payments from any tort recovery won by the injured employee. Since a recovery in tort virtually always compensated the injured person for his or her economic losses as well as other damages, the set-off provision of § 827(5) avoided a double recovery. With the advent of no-fault, tort recovery in automobile accidents was limited to a few situations not including the usual economic losses. MCL 500.3135; MSA 24.13135. An employee can no longer recover in tort for economic losses resulting from a traffic accident, and therefore there can be no double recovery from tort and workers compensation.
It is the interplay between the limited tort recovery of the no-fault act and the set-off provision of the workers compensation act which creates the unconstitutional classification struck down in Reliance Insurance Co v Messina Trucking, Inc, supra. And it is only in this situation that § 827(5) is being held unconstitutional.