Calloway-Gaines v. Crime Victim Services Commission

The plaintiff sought benefits under the compensation of crime victims act, 1 following the murder of her husband. The Crime Victim Services Commission denied most of the benefits which plaintiff sought, and she attempted to appeal to the Court of Appeals. That Court denied her delayed application for leave to appeal for lack of jurisdiction on the ground that the statute does not permit appeals more than thirty days after the commission’s decision.

We conclude that the statutory appeal provision, MCL 18.358; MSA 3.372(8), does not make the thirty-day appeal period jurisdictional, and that a…