Chapter 16 PROCEDURE/APPEALS Sections 32, 32a, 33-36, 38
Section 32, 32a
APPEALS, Benefit check protest, Collateral estoppel, Determination, Failure to protest determination, Final order, Reconsideration, Res judicata
CITE AS: Roman Cleanser Co v Murphy, 386 Mich 698 (1972).
Appeal pending: No
Claimant: William J. Murphy
Employer: Roman Cleanser Company
Docket No: B68 2459 36521
SUPREME COURT HOLDING: When a determination is not protested it becomes a final order which is protected by res judicata and collateral estoppel; unless good cause for reconsideration is established a subsequent protest to a benefit check will not result in a redetermination of the original determination.
FACTS: On March 13, 1968, the Commission mailed a determination holding the claimant eligible for benefits. No protest was made within the 15-day period provided in the Act. A benefit check protest was filed in a letter dated May 17, 1968. On June 13, 1968, the Commission redetermined that the claimant was still eligible. The employer appealed, and prevailed on the merits in circuit court. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
DECISION: The original determination is final.
RATIONALE: "All of the questions raised in this case were properly discussed and disposed of in the well-reasoned minority opinion of Judge Charles L. Levin in the Court of Appeals. We adopt the following portion of that opinion as the opinion of this Court:
'[I] do not think we can properly reach the meritorious question; the determination of March 13, from which no appeal was taken and which thereupon became final, is, by reason of the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel, not subject to collateral attack.'"
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