Opinion
No. 120078.
March 12, 2002.
COA: 221736, WCAC: 95-000180
On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal from the July 17, 2001 decision of the Court of Appeals is considered, and pursuant to MCR 7.302(F)(1), in lieu of granting leave to appeal, we VACATE, in part, the judgment of the Court of Appeals and REINSTATE the opinion and order of the Worker's Compensation Appellate Commission dated July 22, 1999 which affirms the magistrate's decision of May 12, 1999, granting defendant's motion to stop payment of benefits. The judiciary treats the WCAC's findings of fact, made within the WCAC's powers, as conclusive absent fraud. If there is any evidence supporting the WCAC's factual findings, the judiciary must treat those findings as conclusive. MCL 418.861a(14); Mudel v Great Atlantic Pacific Tea Company, 462 Mich. 691 (2000). In this case, there was evidence to support the WCAC's finding that, as of the date of the hearing on defendant's petition to stop benefits, the attacks of porphyria, a genetic disorder from which plaintiff suffered, were no longer caused by or substantially aggravated by the stress of a job plaintiff left 20 years earlier. The Court of Appeals substituted its own judgment for that of the WCAC by independently reviewing the magistrate's decision to determine whether there was competent, material, and substantial evidence on the whole record supporting the magistrate's findings of fact. It therefore exceeded its scope of review. Mudel, supra at 706.
We do not retain jurisdiction.
Cavanagh and Kelly, JJ., would deny leave to appeal.