Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 88357; Published
Judges Shepherd, Wahls, and Sullivan; Unanimous
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: 161 Mich App 285; Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Standards for Deductibility of State and Federal Governmental Benefits [§3109(1)]
State Workers Compensation Benefits [§3109(1)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Workers Disability Compensation Act (MCL 418.1, et seq.)
CASE SUMMARY:
In this unanimous Opinion by Judge Shepherd, the Court of Appeals dealt with workers' compensation setoff issues for the second time in a case which had previously been before the same court. See, Joiner (Item No. 767).
In the first appeal, the Court of Appeals held that the defendant was not entitled to a workers' compensation setoff where the plaintiff’s claim for workers' compensation benefits was still pending in the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board at the time of trial. Under the decision in Perez (Item No. 605), the court held that the plaintiff had made every reasonable effort to obtain workers' compensation benefits by the time of trial. However, since the claim was still pending, there were no benefits "provided or required to be provided" which defendant could setoff against no-fault benefits.
By the time of this second appeal, the plaintiff had successfully completed his workers' compensation appeal, and obtained benefits. The Court of Appeals in this second appeal affirmed the trial court's holding on remand that the defendant was then entitled to a setoff of workers' compensation benefits.
In an issue of apparent first impression, the Court of Appeals also addressed whether or not the workers' compensation benefits setoff is to be taken prior to the calculation of no-fault penalty interest. In this case, the trial court had awarded penalty interest pursuant to §3142. The Court held that under the complicated sequence of litigation in this case, the defendant insurance company had gambled and lost when it contested plaintiff’s entitlement to no-fault benefits, and therefore, was responsible to pay §3142 interest up to the time plaintiff’s entitlement to both workers' compensation and no-fault benefits became final. The §3109 offset for workers' compensation benefits is to be applied to the amount of no-fault benefits, penalty interest and judgment interest owing at the time that the issues of entitlement were final.
