Buehler v. Univ. of Mich.

• Decision Date: 08 December 1936
• Docket Number: No. 99.,99.
• Citation: Buehler v. Univ. of Mich., 277 Mich. 648, 270 N.W. 171 (Mich. 1936)
• Parties: BUEHLER v. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN et al.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

277 Mich. 648

270 N.W. 171

BUEHLER

v.UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN et al.

No. 99.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Dec. 8, 1936.

Appeal from Department of Labor and Industry.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Bertha Buehler, claimant, opposed by University of Michigan, employer, and Michigan Mutual Liability Company, insurer. From an award of compensation to claimant, by the Department of Labor and Industry, the employer and the insurer appeal.

Reversed and remanded.

Argued before the Entire Bench.

L. J. Carey and Geo. J. Cooper, both of Detroit, for appellants.

Harold D. Golds, of Ann Arbor, for appellee.

POTTER, Justice.

Plaintiff, employed at common labor at Martha Cook building, University house, and Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house, all in Ann Arbor, injured her hand while working at the Martha Cook building October 16, 1934.

The first two buildings are operated by the university. The third is not so operated, but is separate therefrom. Plaintiff earned at the Martha Cook building $6.30 a week; at University house, $2.85 a week; at Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house, $9 a week-a total of $18.15. At the time of the hearing, plaintiff was earning at the Martha Cook building $6.30 a week; at the University building, $2.85; and at the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house $4 a week-a falling off in wages of $5 a week, 66 2/3 per cent. of which is $3.33 1/3 a week, which was the amount of the award made by the Department of Labor and Industry.

Defendants appeal claiming the award is based upon earnings in which the university is not interested; that earnings, remuneration, or income received by plaintiff from others than the insured employer were added to the wages received from the insured employer in computing the average weekly wages of plaintiff. Appellants say this should not be done because the statute, 2 Comp.Laws 1929, § 8427, provides compensation ‘shall fairly represent the proportionate extent of the impairment of his earning capacity in the employment in which he was working at the time of the accident’; that this provision as construed in Andrejwski v. Wolverine Coal Co., 182 Mich. 298, 148 N.W. 684, Ann.Cas. 1916D, 724;Hirschkorn v. Fiege Desk Co., 184 Mich. 239, 150 N.W. 851;Hartman v. Village of St. Clair Shores, 246 Mich. 603, 225 N.W. 493;Gallup v. Western Board & Paper Co., 252 Mich. 68, 233 N.W. 184;Carothers v. City of Stanton, 257 Mich. 107, 241 N.W. 178;Laidlow v. City of Ludington, 272 Mich. 11, 261 N.W. 120, and other cases, limits plaintiff to recovering against the university and its insurer compensation based upon her wages earned while employed by the university. Defendants insist to hold otherwise would be to render the operation of the workmen's compensation act uncertain, deprive insurers of the ability to compute premiums on the basis of the wages of the employee, subject employers and insurers to liability which they had not contracted against and which they could not anticipate, and is contrary to the spirit of the statute.

Plaintiff, on the other hand, contends her earnings must be based upon what she earned, on her capacity to earn, or what she might earn in all the various pursuits in which she was engaged at the time the accident occurred; that applied to this case, plaintiff's earnings...