Michigan Supreme Court; Docket Nos. 29716 and 70824; Published
Judges Williams, Kavanagh, Levin, Ryan, Brickley, Cavanagh, and Boyle; Per Curiam
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: 418 Mich 231; Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Work Loss Benefits: Nature of the Benefit [§3107(1)(b)]
Work Loss Benefits: Calculation of Benefits [§3107(1)(b)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Not Applicable
CASE SUMMARY:
In lieu of granting leave to appeal, the Supreme Court unanimously held in this consolidated per curiam opinion that work loss benefits under §3107(b) of the Statute are limited to loss of wage or salary income and do not include fringe benefits such as the loss of employer paid health insurance premiums, employer contributions to pension plans and employer payment of social security taxes. Although suggesting that employer contributions to a profit sharing plan might also not be included as part of work loss under §3107(b), the Supreme Court concluded that on the facts of the Krawczyk case, the profit sharing plan involved therein was part of the employee's regular wages and thus recoverable as a no-fault work loss benefit. The Court noted that Ms. Krawczyk's profit sharing payments were made quarterly and her plant manager testified that "profit sharing, is part of [the employee's] normal wage." The basis of the Supreme Court's opinion was the analysis it employed in Miller v State Farm (item number 378) which referred to differences between work loss benefits under §3107(b) and survivor's loss benefits under §3108.
Therefore, based upon this decision, the Krawczyk decision (item number 546) was partially reversed with respect to the profit sharing issue and affirmed as to the other issues and the Farquharson (item number 587) was reversed insofar as it would permit recovery of pension contribution and health insurance benefits. In all other respects leave to appeal was denied.
