Court Opinion

ID: 9686980
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:13:03.427206+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:23.483284
License: Public Domain

Coleman, J.,
(dissenting). We granted leave to *463appeal primarily to consider the constitutionality of 1975 PA 341 — the "70% statute”. This legislation requires a carrier (self-insurer, insurer or accident fund)2 to pay a worker compensation benefits before the basic fact-finding and legal review procedures have been completed. Also, the legislation fails to provide a full refund for carriers who have been wrongly forced to pay benefits, so it is confiscatory in fact. The legislation violates Const 1963, art 1, § 17 which insures that "[n]o person shall * * * be deprived of * * * property, without due process of law”.
If the employer were found not liable, plaintiffs under this worker’s compensation scheme would receive a "gift” which would not have to be returned. No other plaintiffs would enjoy such a windfall.
Because the majority has found the legislation constitutional, I also note my disagreement with its finding of retroactivity. The statute is substantive in nature primarily because it provides for new obligations and new benefits.
It is agreed that the Worker’s Disability Com*464pensation Act serves a laudable purpose. It is also agreed that the goal of speedy lawful payments to a deserving plaintiff is exemplary. However, the incursion upon basic constitutional rights of one party in order to achieve speedy payment to another who may not be entitled at all to such payment is not a proper means to attain the goal. The statute provides for self-reimbursement by the "successful” defendant. There is no method of recoupment of erroneously paid funds from the employee.
Although the Legislature might have fashioned a constitutional scheme, it did not.
I. Time of 70% Payments
The factual situations as presented by Justice Moody are accepted. The legal conclusions are disputed.
Const 1963, art 6, § 28 provides:
"Findings of fact in workmen’s compensation proceedings shall be conclusive in the absence of fraud unless otherwise provided by law.”
MCLA 418.861; MSA 17.237(861) parallels the Constitution:
"The findings of fact made by the board [WCAB] acting within its powers, in the absence of fraud, shall be conclusive.”
However, the point at which the employer must begin 70% payment under 1975 PA 34 is prior to WCAB action despite any dispute and the possibility of further evidentiary hearings. It is also prior to judicial review of questions of law as provided by Constitution and statute.
*465The Worker’s Disability Compensation Act requires that "[a]ny controversy concerning compensation * * * be submitted to the bureau” of workmen’s compensation. The bureau must determine "all questions arising under this act”. MCLA 418.841; MSA 17.237(841).
When notice of a dispute is filed, the director "shall set the case for hearing and shall designate a hearing referee to hear the case”. MCLA 418.847; MSA 17.237(847). A party dissatisfied with the referee’s order may file a claim of appeal.
Appeals are submitted to the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, "an independent body with power and authority to hear and decide all appeals from the orders of the hearing referees and director”. MCLA 418.255; MSA 17.237(255). The WCAB must "promptly review the order, together with the records of the hearing; it may hear the parties together with such additional evidence as it in its discretion may allow them to submit(Emphasis added.) MCLA 418.859; MSA 17.237(859).
The fact-finding process in disputed cases is complete in the WCAB.
MCLA 418.861; MSA 17.237(861) then provides that "the court of appeals and the supreme court shall have power to review questions of law involved in any final order of the board”. The Constitution requires that the review "include, as a minimum, the determination whether” the board’s actions "are authorized by law”.
Thus the adjudicative format is hearing referee, WCAB, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court — a sometimes lengthy process.
The Legislature then passed 1975 PA 34. MCLA 418.862; MSA 17.237(862). If a referee awards benefits, payment must begin "as of the date of the *466hearing referee’s award and * * * continue until final determination of the appeal or for a shorter time if specified in the award”. The filing of a claim for review "shall not operate as a stay of payment to the claimant of 70% of the weekly benefit”. If the award "is reduced or rescinded by a final determination, the carrier shall be entitled to reimbursement * * * upon audit and proper voucher from the second injury fund” (Emphasis added.)
1975 PA 34 provides that benefit payments begin with the hearing referee’s order. However, the statute gives the employer a right to have that claim reviewed by the WCAB and gives the WCAB the right to consider additional evidence. This is a critical stage of the process. It is where law and fact are sifted out. It is where the scope of judicial review is circumscribed.
1975 PA 34 has a praiseworthy goal — to insure that deserving claimants promptly receive benefits. However, in working toward that goal the legislation collides with the process for determining who are deserving claimants. Also, in trying to protect the rights of deserving claimants, the legislation leaves unprotected the carriers’ right to full reimbursement if the claimant is found to be undeserving and leaves that claimant in full possession of moneys not owed but paid to him or her.
II. The Common Law
Caselaw has consistently mirrored our recognition of the great importance of WCAB proceedings and findings. However, 1975 PA 34 requires that benefit payments begin even before the WCAB makes its "conclusive” fact findings and before the courts have an opportunity "to review questions of law”. Both the employee and the company or carrier have a right to a WCAB review; both have *467a right to seek the appellate court review authorized by the Constitution.3
In Szydlowski v General Motors Corp, 397 Mich 356; 245 NW2d 26 (1976), the plaintiff, a widow, filed a circuit court action based on employment-related injuries to her husband. The Court of Appeals said "the circuit court does have subject matter jurisdiction, concurrent with the workmen’s compensation bureau”. We reversed, affirming the position of Herman v Theis, 10 Mich App 684; 160 NW2d 365 (1968), that such issues "are to be exclusively within the purview of the workmen’s compensation department, and the merits of such a claim are to be first evaluated by the department”. We said Theis reminds us that workmen’s compensation procedures "have been statutorily established” and "properly cautions us against a shortcut or circumvention of those procedures”.
We have acknowledged the WCAB’s primary position in these matters and have accepted the limitations on our scope of review. In Evans v United States Rubber Co, 379 Mich 457, 461; 152 NW2d 641 (1967), we said art 6, § 28 only meant that appellate court review of WCAB decisions "shall be had when, in the exercise of judicial judgment and discretion” the court accepts the appeal. On appeal, "[o]ur obligation * * * is to accept” the board’s fact-finding, if supported, even if there is proof pointing the opposite way "and, having done so, * * * determine whether the *468award * * * is unfounded as a matter of law”. Johnson v Vibradamp Corp, 381 Mich 388; 162 NW2d 139 (1968). "[Wjhenever possible” we want to "have the benefit of’ the WCAB’s views "before opting for one or another interpretation of this complex and frequently amended statute”. Kushay v Sexton Dairy Co, 394 Mich 69, 77; 228 NW2d 205 (1975).
The importance of WCAB proceedings was emphasized in DeGeer v DeGeer Farm Equipment Co, 391 Mich 96, 100; 214 NW2d 794 (1974). The WCAB opinion had tangled its factual findings and legal conclusions. We were "unable to perform that necessary first step of review” which
"is to separate its findings of fact from its understanding of the law controlling the case. If the Appeal Board correctly understood the law and determined as a matter of fact that appellant did not suffer permanent and total disability, we are bound by law to accept its decision in this case. * * * If, however, the Appeal Board erroneously interpreted the Workmen’s Compensation Act in reaching its decision, we have the duty and authority to correct any such erroneous legal conclusions.”
We reminded the WCAB that the proper performance of our review depends on the board’s proper performance of its review. Also see Harrison v Tireman & Colfax Bump & Repair Shop, 395 Mich 48; 232 NW2d 274 (1975), and Steel v Suits News Co, 398 Mich 171, 177-178; 247 NW2d 284 (1976). ("[T]o properly review this conclusion, we must have the facts and a clear conclusion that the employment did or did not cause or contribute to the injury. We cannot discharge our review function if the facts are imprecisely or unclearly stated”.)
An unemployment compensation statute was *469considered in Chrysler Corp v Smith, 297 Mich 438, 452-453; 298 NW 87 (1941). Although not the focus of the opinion, the Court did note a section providing that
"if the final decision of a referee affirms the initial or an amended determination, or the appeal board affirms the final decision of a referee, allowing benefits, such benefits shall be paid regardless of any appeal which may thereafter be taken, but if such decision is finally reversed, no employer’s experience record shall be charged with benefits so paid”.
The Court was concerned that this "would render administrative action superior to recognized judicial power” and make the court review provisions "a nullity”. It said the section, if applied, "would render due process of law, expressly recognized and provided for in the act, nugatory and a senseless gesture”.
The same section was reviewed in Chrysler Corp v Unemployment Compensation Commission, 301 Mich 351, 356, 360; 3 NW2d 302 (1942). The Court held it unconstitutional for "the fundamental reason” that
"otherwise the controverted issue of claimants’ right to be paid compensation would in effect be finally decided and the compensation paid without affording an adverse party any opportunity whatever to have obtained a judicial determination of the rights of the respective parties; and thereby the party contesting the employees’ claim to compensation would be deprived of the right to due process which is afforded by both the State Constitution and the Federal Constitution whenever the controversy involves property rights.”
The provision would "deprive the courts of any effective review or supervisory control of awards of *470compensation to applicants therefor regardless of whether or not they were entitled to same under the terms of the act” the Court said.
In fn 10 of his opinion, Justice Moody says that "[i]nsofar as Chrysler Corp v Unemployment Compensation Commission * * * is inapposite” to California Dep’t of Human Resources Development v Java, 402 US 121; 91 S Ct 1347; 28 L Ed 2d 666 (1971), "our reliance on Java renders that decision nugatory”. In the opinion, he does acknowledge that Java "arose out of a different factual context and dealt with the complex interplay of Federal-state guidelines regarding the prompt payment of unemployment benefits”. He does not acknowledge that Java involves statutory interpretation rather than constitutional law.
The Java court held the California procedure was inconsistent with the Social Security Act which requires benefits to be paid when due.
In reviewing the California procedures, the Court said "it can be seen that the interview for the determination of eligibility is the critical point”. This initial determination "is effective in insuring that benefits are limited to legally eligible claimants”. The Court found that "95%-98% of ineligible claimants are screened out at this stage”.
The Michigan workmen’s compensation situation is not analagous to California’s unemployment compensation situation. Here, the WCAB proceeding is the critical stage as to facts, as demonstrated above. Also, the courts are constitutionally assigned the function of reviewing for legal errors. The statistics are much different. From July 1, 1974 to July 1, 1975 the WCAB handled 518 cases by opinion and order: 302 were affirmed; 136 modified; 69 reversed; 11 remanded. *471Thus, in 216 or nearly 42% of those 518 cases, the WCAB did not accept the referee’s decision.
I believe the procedures established by Constitution and statute are the minimum necessary to insure that claims are handled fairly. The WCAB has an important review function; the appellate courts have a different but equally important review function. The imposition of liability and irreparable damage upon companies and carriers before these reviews are completed deprives them of procedure essential to due process of law.
Justice Moody notes that eligible workers "must often wait years to begin receiving compensation while the appellate process slowly grinds to a final conclusion”. The "appellate process hamstrings the delivery of immediate benefits”. Eligible employees are "whipsawed into settlements for lesser benefits in order to avoid the lengthy appellate process”. We have a "strangulating appellate process”.
If all this is true, it is also true for other plaintiffs, but this opinion rests primarily on due process rather than equal protection. However, the solution is obvious and does not involve curtailing basic procedural rights of one or more parties to the dispute. We should not punish any party for judicial failure to speedily process these cases or legislative failure to provide a constitutional solution. We cannot in good conscience deprive one party of due process of law in order to favor another. In the event of conflicting constitutional rights, a balancing may be necessary. Such is not the case here where we balance constitutional rights of one party against convenience to another. Our sympathies here undeniably lend weight to convenience. The question is how far we should go in sacrificing the basic rights of one party to sympathy for the opposing party.
*472Plainly stated the question is: Is this the key to unlock the door through which we allow the due process doctrine to escape?
III. Confiscation of Property
The Worker’s Disability Compensation Act to date has enjoyed judicial findings of constitutionality primarily because it has maintained a balance —or trade-off — between opposing legal rights. For example, the worker gives up the right to sue the employer in tort and the employer gives up defenses available in tort, such as negligence of the worker.
However, 1975 PA 34 boasts no such virtue. It is plainly confiscatory in nature. There is no balancing of rights, no trade-off, no way that carriers can be made whole. It is no solution to rationalize that the losses will be passed on eventually to the consumer. Nor are all employers big and rich corporations. The corner grocery store, the small hardware store, the elderly person with a household helper also are included.
The act purports to provide for reimbursing those carriers forced to pay benefits to claimants who, on review, are found to be ineligible. However, as the trial court in the Self-Insurers case noted, 1975 PA 34 requires carriers "to bear the burden of appeal as well as the support of the individual claimant while the decision is being appealed”. If successful, "the insurer is reimbursed out of a fund which it helps finance”. All other insurers also are being "reimbursed” from that fund, so defendants not only are receiving back money they put in in the first place but are paying other insurers in like situations.
The non-reimbursed cost is passed on to the *473employer and, if the employer is in business or industry, thence to the consumer. If a governmental unit is the employer, it is passed on to the taxpayer. If the employee is a household helper, the homeowner absorbs the cost. If the employer is self-insured, the "self’ in the "self-insured” absorbs the cost.
A. Reimbursement from Employee-Claimants
The Court of Appeals conceded that 1975 PA 34 might be unconstitutional if construed as "limiting reimbursement only from the Second Injury Fund” and noted that reimbursement also could be sought from the employee-claimant. I agree with Justice Moody that the 70% act provides only one means of reimbursement, thereby excluding reimbursement from the employee who was wrongfully paid and also excluding any other means of reimbursement.
However, my colleagues go further and say that the carrier should be required to pay the 70% of what is not owed and that no reimbursement is necessary.
At least the Court of Appeals recognized a long line of Michigan cases holding that we cannot deprive a party of recoupment of money not owed but paid to a worker or beneficiary. This constitutional concept is basic and the 70% statute fails partially because it violates this tenet.
Certainly I cannot agree with Justice Moody that "the legislation involved deals with property rights” and therefore "not fundamental rights”. The fallacy is obvious.
In Kirchner v Michigan Sugar Co, 206 Mich 459, 463, 465; 173 NW 193 (1919), the state accident fund by mistake overcompensated a worker. The *474fund sought reimbursement. The industrial accident board ordered "that the total sum overpaid * * * shall be applied on the future compensation payable * * * until such overpaid amount is entirely consumed”. The Court affirmed saying the worker was "entitled to receive, and his employer is obligated to pay, no more and no less than the statute compensation”. The board had authority "to make such an order * * * to bring about, so far as possible, such desired and lawful result”.
In Webster v Rotary Electric Steel Co, 321 Mich 526, 532; 33 NW2d 69 (1948), the plaintiffs husband was killed while working. She and an infant daughter received benefits. When plaintiff remarried, a dispute arose concerning the child’s benefits. On appeal the Court reduced the benefits. It also ordered that if overpayments were made, the amount "shall be deducted from future payments”. Also see Samels v Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, 323 Mich 251, 259; 35 NW2d 265 (1948):
"One of the purposes of the compensation act is to afford the injured employee prompt relief and not permit it to be withheld while the employer delays payment by the filing of a petition or petitions to reduce compensation. * * * Nevertheless, where there has been no laches by the employer, the commission, when called upon by proper petition, should determine whether there has been an overpayment under the facts, as are presented in this case, and order the return of such overpayment either directly or by a credit on future payments. The act seeks just compensation, but not a penalty”. (Emphasis added.)
These cases were reviewed in Danford v Contract Purchase Corp, 333 Mich 559, 567; 53 NW2d 377 (1952), where plaintiff, a widow, received a lump-sum advance payment to cover 129 weeks of benefits. Before that time expired, she remarried. *475The company sought reimbursement which the commission granted and this Court affirmed:
"Her right to further compensation under the statute was terminated by her. Under the facts presented here we are in accord with the holding of the compensation commission that under the statute, reasonably interpreted, the amount paid to her in anticipation of future payments that it was assumed she would be entitled to receive must be regarded as an overpayment. In ordering the return the commission did not exceed its authority.” (Emphasis added.)4
MCLA 418.827; MSA 17.237(827) permits an employee receiving compensation to begin "an action to enforce the liability of a third party”. However, any recovery "after deducting expenses of recovery, shall first reimburse the employer or carrier for any amounts paid or payable * * * to the date of recovery and the balance * * * shall be treated as an advance payment by the employer on account of any future payments of compensation benefits”.
The plaintiff in Pelkey v Elsea Realty & Investment Co, 394 Mich 485; 232 NW2d 154 (1975), claimed that the statute above violated due process and equal protection guarantees by crediting money received for pain and suffering. We noted that at one time the employee had to elect a remedy — workmen’s compensation or tort. Now, the employee can pursue both. We did "not find the provision for reimbursement to be an arbitrary denial of a property right”. The reimbursement "is justified by the abrogation of the election of remedies requirement”.
These cases underscore a conclusion that a com*476pany or carrier has a right to be fully reimbursed for being required to pay benefits to undeserving claimants. Full reimbursement means a dollar back for a dollar paid.
B. Skcond Injury Fund
1975 PA 34 does not provide full reimbursement. The company or carrier is paid from the Second Injury Fund. That fund was created "to compensate workmen for successive injuries which leave them totally and permanently disabled”.5 In White v Weinberger Builders, Inc, 397 Mich 23; 242 NW2d 427 (1976), we adopted the Court of Appeals analysis that the fund is "to protect the totally and permanently disabled employee who is entitled to compensation * * * from inflation by passing on legislative improvements in benefits without assessing a single employer for benefits not in effect at the time of injury”. 49 Mich App 430, 436; 212 NW2d 307 (1973). The fund was intended to promote hiring of handicapped persons.
The fund’s money is provided by assessing each carrier. Every year the workmen’s compensation director determines the total disbursements from the fund during the preceding year. This figure is multiplied by 175% and the result is reduced by "the amount of net assets in excess of $200,000.00” in the fund. This is the total assessment.
The director must then determine each carrier’s share of the total. He first finds the ratio of total compensation benefits paid by each carrier (with certain deductions) to the total compensation benefits paid by all carriers. This ratio is applied to the *477total assessment and the resulting figure becomes the individual carrier’s assessment.
The Second Injury Fund was not created to reimburse carriers. It was designed to spread the cost of certain workers’ benefits among all carriers. It was designed to channel funds to deserving claimants without overburdening individual carriers. It was not designed to be a self-reimbursement fund.
As described above, the fund is financed by an assessment on each carrier. Under 1975 PA 34, each carrier forced to pay benefits to an undeserving claimant is reimbursed with its own money, with money it was required to pay. Further, by using Second Injury Fund money to reimburse, 1975 PA 34 lowers the balance of net assets in the fund, thus increasing the total assessment. This means each carrier’s assessment will increase. The initial injustice is compounded in perpetuity.
In situations where reimbursement is warranted, 1975 PA 34 has operated to require a carrier to make payments to an undeserving claimant. The carrier is out of pocket a certain sum. It is reimbursed from a fund into which it is required to pay. The "reimbursement”, in turn, will have the effect of requiring the carrier to pay more into the fund.
The carrier will never be made whole for payments which it was wrongly forced to make. All carriers must dip into their own money to "reimburse” themselves and then pitch in to replace the money paid to them.
On the other hand, the unsuccessful claimant will have received as a gift 70% of what would have been paid if he or she had been successful.
The result is to chill the right of appeal by an employer or carrier under this "no-win” concept. *478Far from being frivolous, most defendants-appellants’ appeals to this Court bring forth questions of substance. Some are of major jurisprudential importance, as, for instance, the effects of childhood or congenital psychiatric and physical disorders upon compensation under varied circumstances. (What is compensable and what is not?) Statutory interpretations of an imprecise and complex act frequently are in question.
In short, we cannot gloss over defendant appeals as "frivolous” in order to sustain a 70% payment of a possibly erroneous referee’s finding.
The core of the problem is that taking money to place in the Second Injury Fund from one pocket and taking it out again as reimbursement to place in the other pocket — only to have to remove some of it to replace that taken from the fund in the first place — does not really add up to recoupment.
It is a fiction which is not avoided by saying that the money changes character by placement in the fund and thus becomes the "state’s” money— which must be replaced by the same carriers who reimburse themselves from it. It is not part of the general fund. It is a special fund for a special purpose and funded by those same carriers which are now required to take the money out with one hand and replace it with another. It does not involve tax dollars.
We cannot (or should not) avoid reality in this analysis or we open wide the door to like confiscatory fictions in other concepts. We should not emulate the ostrich and bury our heads so that we do not see what we do not wish to see.
C. Retroactivity
My colleagues also hang much on the nail of *479"remedial legislation”. Of particular note is the reply in part IV to appellants’ arguments against retroactivity. They find no impairment of contractual obligations because the amendment, like the parent workmen’s compensation act, is termed "remedial” not "substantive”.
It is argued that the Legislature simply altered the "method of enforcing pre-existing rights,” and that the 1975 statute did "not increase an employer’s or carrier’s substantive liability for injuries incurred or appeals taken by employers before the act’s effective date”.
One fallacy immediately apparent is that even in the absence of pre-existing rights, plaintiff receives the greater part of the benefits and keeps it while the non-liable appellant can never fully recover the money paid.
This is not a method of paying what is due. This is substance, not form. It contains new "rights” and "duties” as opposed to rules and remedies by which substantive law is administered. It places new burdens on employers and carriers and those to whom those burdens are passed. It bestows new rights upon the losing plaintiff.
Our jurisprudence as a whole will suffer from the precedent that because an act is initially considered remedial, all amendments must also be considered remedial whether or not new substantive obligations (and concomitant benefits) are imposed.
Unless the meaning of "substantive law” is corrupted, the Michigan scheme of 1975 PA 34, even if made constitutional by judicial fiat, should not be retroactive in application.
IV. Summary
1975 PA 34 is confiscatory, providing for the *480taking of property without due process of law. It bestows upon unsuccessful plaintiffs a non-returnable gift of 70% of what they would have received had they been successful. The successful defendant could never be fully reimbursed.
The point of entry into the process for purposes of payment is prior to final finding of disputed facts (in WCAB) and prior to any review of disputed law. The function of WCAB as the final fact-finder is overcome by this statute in practical effect.
Although defendants (whether industrial giants, small businesses or individual employers of household help and whether self-insured or insured by another "carrier”) may be found not liable for a disputed injury, nevertheless 70% of the initial referee’s award must be paid to the plaintiff and plaintiff need not ever return the money. It is in the nature of a windfall to a plaintiff without a valid claim.
Most importantly, the carrier cannot be fully reimbursed for such losses from the Second Injury Fund. Carriers place the money in the fund to encourage the hiring of handicapped people and to distribute the costs among the carriers. They are now to reimburse themselves from the same fund for the 70% losses. This lowers the fund, which in turn requires them to pay again into the fund to bring it up to level. They are bound to lose and on increasing levels. They cannot be made whole under this particular scheme. Their property is in fact confiscated.
1975 PA 34 proposes to raid the Second Injury Fund for a purpose other than encouraging the hiring of the handicapped. The effect of this raid is unpredictable. It could result in such a serious depletion that people for whom the fund was *481intended could not benefit from it. Even the deepest pocket has a bottom. In this no-win situation, the right of a defendant to appeal is "chilled”. For many, it may be "frozen”.
Further, the statute is substantive in that it bestows new "windfall” benefits upon losing plaintiffs and creates new financial obligations upon winning employers and carriers which they cannot in reality recover. This is not simply a different method of payment to deserving plaintiffs so as to justify the term "remedial legislation”. Therefore, my colleagues’ decision that the statute is constitutional should not bear with it any obligations incurred by its terms prior to its effective date.
Because I would find 1975 PA 34 unconstitutional, retroactivity would not need to be considered nor would the Court of Appeals decision that recoupment could be obtained from the plaintiff-employee (supra). I would find the statute void and sever it from the Worker’s Disability Compensation Act. The Legislature could then proceed to create a scheme preserving constitutional rights to all.
In my opinion, the laudable purpose of the statute cannot properly overcome the serious constitutional defects. The basic rights of all parties must be protected or the fundamental rights of none are safe. So far as the basic rights of one party are diminished, so are our own — and so are the rights of the employee-claimants designated as the recipients of this Court’s well-intentioned beneficence.
I would reverse the Court of Appeals.

A "claim for review filed pursuant to sections 859 or 861 shall not operate as a stay of payment to the claimant of 70% of the weekly benefit required by the terms of the hearing referee’s award. Payment shall commence as of the date of the hearing referee’s award and shall continue until final determination of the appeal or for a shorter period if specified in the award. Benefits accruing prior to the referee’s award shall be withheld until final determination of the appeal. If the weekly benefit is reduced or rescinded by a final determination, the carrier shall be entitled to reimbursement in a sum equal to the compensation paid pending the appeal in excess of the amount finally determined. Reimbursement shall be paid upon audit and proper voucher from the second injury fund established in chapter 5. If the award is affirmed by a final determination, the carrier shall pay all compensation which has become due under the provisions of the award, less any compensation already paid. Interest shall not be paid on amounts paid pending final determination. Payments made to the claimant during the appeal period shall be considered as accrued compensation for purposes of determining attorneys’ fees under the rules of the bureau.”

 MCLA 418.601(c); MSA 17.237(601)(c).

 Const 1963, art 6, § 28:
"All final decisions, findings, rulings and orders of any administrative officer or agency existing under the constitution or by law, which are judicial or quasi-judicial and affect private rights or licenses, shall be subject to direct review by the courts as provided by law. This review shall include, as a minimum, the determination whether such final decisions, findings, rulings and orders are authorized by law; and, in cases in which a hearing is required, whether the same are supported by competent, material and substantial evidence on the whole record”.

 Also see Carter v Kelsey-Hayes Co, 52 Mich App 470; 217 NW2d 405 (1974).

 Buchau v Simmons Boiler & Machine Co, 392 Mich 141, 151, 157; 220 NW2d 408 (1974) (Coleman, J., concurring).