Court Opinion

ID: 9535819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:44:50.075432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:21.146206
License: Public Domain

V. J. Brennan, J.
(concurring). While I concur with the results reached here, I do not agree that White v Weinberger Builders, Inc, 397 Mich 23; 242 NW2d 427 (1976), and Grice v General Motors Corp, 407 Mich 465; 286 NW2d 238 (1979), are dispositive. As the majority has stated, White relieves the Second Injury Fund (SIF) of liability where the employer and employee have executed a redemption agreement. However, White does not conversely require that the Second Injury Fund can be stipulated into liability without notice or the opportunity to challenge the merits of claimant’s claim. I find it neither inherently unfair nor unreasonable that the SIF stand in the shoes of the employer in effecting a redemption agreement relieving it of liability while conversely having the right to notice and to challenge a claimant’s claim when the Fund’s liability is determined by stipulation. I do not believe that the Court’s holding in White is mutually exclusive of the position I advocate here.