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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


DONNA JEAN GRIGG, Plaintiff-Appellant, v UPJOHN HEALTHCARE SERVICES, AETNA CASUALTY & SURETY, and SECOND INJURY FUND (TWO YEARS CONTINUOUS DISABILITY PROVISIONS), Defendants-Appellees.

UNPUBLISHED January 6, 1998

No. 197717 WCAC LC No. 93-000121

ON REMAND

Before: Kelly, P.J., and Reilly and Jansen, JJ. PER CURIAM. This case is remanded from the Michigan Supreme Court for consideration by this Court as on leave granted.1 Plaintiff appeals from a decision of the Worker's Compensation Appellate Commission (WCAC) reversing a magistrate's decision to award plaintiff an increase in benefits. We affirm in part and reverse in part. Plaintiff began working for Upjohn Healthcare Services in 1976 on a full-time basis. On January 19, 1985, she received a disabling injury. At the time of her injury, plaintiff was working part time with Upjohn Healthcare Services as a nurse's aide. Plaintiff had also been employed part-time by another employer at some time prior to her injury. Subsequently, a magistrate found that plaintiff was partially disabled and awarded benefits to her at a rate of $75.91 per week. In 1990, plaintiff filed a petition seeking an increase in the rate of her benefits pursuant to MCL 418.356(1); MSA 17.237(356)(1). After a hearing, a magistrate found (1) that plaintiff had suffered a change in her condition leaving her totally disabled, (2) that based on plaintiff' s age, education, experience and training, she could have been employed as a nurse's aide at a rate of $7.46 per hour in 1990, (3) that "in all likelihood," plaintiff would have been working forty hours per week, and (4) that there was no evidence that plaintiff' s "dream to become a nurse" would have become a reality. Consequently, the magistrate increased the rate of plaintiff' s benefits to $186.20 per week, based on the wage plaintiff

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could have earned working forty hours per week as a nurse's aide. Defendant, Second Injury Fund, was responsible for the $110.29 increase in plaintiff' s benefits. Both plaintiff and Second Injury Fund appealed to the WCAC. Plaintiff argued that the evidence in the record justified a finding that plaintiff would have had a much higher earning capacity by virtue of having moved into a higher level of employment. The WCAC disagreed and affirmed the magistrate's factual finding that plaintiff would have remained in her pre-injury position as a nurse's aide. Second Injury Fund argued that the magistrate erred when she increased plaintiff' s benefit rate pursuant to

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