Michigan: Commission’s Practice Limiting Overpayment Recovery to Cases of Fraud Nixed by Appellate Court

The Michigan Compensation Appellate Commission’s practice of allowing a recoupment for overpayment of workers’ compensation only where the employer or insurer could show fraud on the part of the injured worker is contrary to statute [see MCL 418.354(9)], held a Michigan appellate court. The statute's clear provisions allowed recoupment for overpayments made during the year prior to the recoupment action; fraud need not be a factor. Accordingly, a decision by the Commission disallowing recoupment because the insurer failed to show fraud could not stand.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Fisher v. Kalamazoo Reg’l Psychiatric Hosp., 2019 Mich. App. LEXIS 5341 (Sept. 10, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 131.05.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see