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Spencer v. Grede Vassar3/2/2001
UNPUBLISHED
I. Nature of the Case
In this appeal from an order of the Workers' Compensation Appellate Commission (WCAC), we again address the application of the "retiree presumption" of the Workers' Disability Compensation Act (WDCA). MCL 418.373; MSA 17.237(373). On September 1, 1996, plaintiff retired on a non-disability pension and receives continuing medical benefits for an injury he sustained in 1992. However, pursuant to the retiree presumption of Section 373, he was denied wage loss benefits after his retirement date.
Section 373 presumes that an employee who retires from active employment does not "have a loss of earnings or earning capacity as the result of a compensable injury or disease." The following quotation underscores the Legislature's policy reasons for enacting provisions in the WDCA to prohibit employees from collecting both retirement and wage loss benefits:
For many years the most hotly discussed topic concerning the Michigan workers' compensation system was the so-called 'retiree problem.' It was almost unique to this State. Its legal underpinning was the notion developed by the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board, with some support from the judiciary, that a retired worker, even one who had voluntarily retired and gone on a company-funded pension, could still be suffering from a loss of wage earning capacity. If the retiree could demonstrate that he or she had incurred a disability caused by pre- retirement job activity or working environment (a bad back from 30 years on the assembly line or a dust disease from 30 years in a foundry), the retiree was entitled to workers' compensation. It should be emphasized that in many of these cases the disability was undoubtedly genuine, at least in the physical impairment sense, and such an employee would unquestionably be eligible for medical benefits. The fighting issue was whether he was also entitled to recover for wage loss. ... or [targeted employers], it was plainly provoking, not to mention costly, to see workers take early retirement and walk out of a plant one day and then proceed to file their workers' compensation claims the next.
*
The principle of avoiding duplicative payments under workers' compensation and other income maintenance programs, such as private pensions and Social Security , was endorsed by the National Commission on State Workmen's Compensation Laws. ... he coordination arrangements have also served to check, if not eradicate, one of the most criticized aspects of Michigan's workers' compensation system, namely, the payment of disability benefits to retired workers who almost by definition are suffering no wage loss. [Franks v White Pine Copper Div, 422 Mich 636, 656-658; 375 NW2d 715 (1985) , quoting Theodore J. St. Antoine, Report on Workers' Compensation in Michigan: Costs, Benefits, and Fairness (1984).]
II. Facts and Proceedings
Plaintiff worked as a general laborer at Eaton Corporation, later purchased by Grede Vassar, Inc., from 1966 until he sustained a back injury in April 1992. On March 9, 1993, plaintiff returned to work at Grede Vassar as an inspector, working four hours per day, two or three days per week. Plaintiff's inspection job required minimal lifting and allowed him the option to sit or stand. Plaintiff continued working as a part-time inspector until he retired with a non-disability pension on September 1, 1996.
Plaintiff filed a petition for worker's compensation benefits and the magistrate granted partial benefits through his last day of work and continuing medical benefits. However, the magistrate denied plaintiff wage loss benefits after his retirement date because he retired f
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