Appellate Court rejects injured worker's claim he was "temporarily unemployed"

In Stanny v. Progressive Michigan Insurance, a panel of the Court of Appeals rejected the injured plaintiff's claim for wage loss benefits under MCL 3107a.  The latter provision allows a person injured in a car wreck to collect three years of lost wages if he or she was laid off or temporarily out of the job market at the time of the car accident.  In Stanny's case, the Court was compelled to exclude him from this benefit because he had left his employment by choice in 1997 and "the totality of circumstances" surrounding his claim "provided no evidence that he would have returned to employment but for the accident".  In a footnote, the judges explained that they need not address what level of evidence would be necessary to demonstrate a probability of returning to work, since the Plaintiff produced no evidence of any probability.