Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 57502; Published
Judges Gillis, Walsh, and Kaufman; Unanimous; Opinion by Judge Walsh
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: 124 Mich App 514; 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 Walsh, the Court of Appeals held that it had no authority to rule that the Supreme Court's decisions in O'Donnell v State Farm (item number 142] and Mathis v Interstate (item number 292) should have anything less than full retroactive application. The Court held that it is only the Supreme Court which has the authority to dictate that one of its decisions interpreting a statute is to be given limited application. Accordingly, the holdings in O'Donnell and Mathis that the government benefits subtraction provisions of §3109(1) of the Act were constitutional entitle defendant DAIIE to subtract duplicative workers' compensation benefits from those no-fault benefits it was required to provide as a result of plaintiff’s auto accident injury. Accordingly, a counterclaim by defendant DAIIE to recoup those duplicative no-fault benefits from a subsequent workers' comp redemption obtained by plaintiff should not be dismissed. However, the Court of Appeals stated that it was not deciding whether or not such no-fault benefits did in fact duplicate the plaintiff’s workers' comp redemption and what, if any, subtraction was statutorily authorized. Those matters were to be left to the trial court on remand.
