The panel said that an omission by the magistrate made it appropriate for it to exercise its limited fact finding powers under Holden v Ford Motor Co, 439 Mich. 257; 484 N.W.2d 227 (1992), and Woody v Cello-Foil Products(On Remand), 204 Mich. App. 259; 514 N.W.2d 228 (1994). After the commission issued its decision in the instant case, we reversed the Court of Appeals decision in Woody (After Remand), 450 Mich. 588; 546 N.W.2d 226 (1996). The panel then undertook to determine whether plaintiff's work-related injury was a significant factor in causing his disability.

As long as the WCAC is presented with a record that allows it to intelligently make its own factual findings, the Legislature has declared that the WCAC is free to do so. We believe that Layman's reliance on Woody v Cello-Foil Products (After Remand), 450 Mich. 588; 546 N.W.2d 226 (1996), was misplaced. Woody stands for the limited proposition that the WCAC cannot review a decision by a magistrate, if the magistrate's opinion is insufficiently detailed to allow the reviewing body to separate findings of fact from legal determinations.

We believe that the record in this matter is too incomplete to facilitate meaningful appellate review. Cf. Woody v Cello-Foil Prods (After Remand), 450 Mich. 588; 546 N.W.2d 226 (1996). The WDCA defines a disability as (1) "a limitation of an employee's wage earning capacity in work suitable to his or her qualifications and training," (2) "resulting from a personal injury or work-related disease." MCL 418.301(4)(a).

Findings of fact are determinations the trial court has made from the evidence in the case regarding matters the parties dispute. See Woody v Cello-Foil Products, 450 Mich 588, 598-599; 546 NW2d 226 (1996)(WEAVER, J. dissenting). Thus, to be a "finding of fact," the point needs to be one that is disputed and one about which the trial court makes a decision.

We believe that the record in this matter is too incomplete to facilitate meaningful appellate review. Cf. Woody v Cello-Foil Prods (After Remand) , 450 Mich. 588, 546 N.W.2d 226 (1996). The WDCA defines a disability as (1) "a limitation of an employee's wage earning capacity in work suitable to his or her qualifications and training," (2) "resulting from a personal injury or work-related disease."

In so doing, it exceeded the WCAC's administrative appellate scope of review. See Woody v Cello-Foil Prods ( After Remand), 450 Mich. 588, 603 (1996) (Weaver, J., dissenting). To contend that the judiciary is prohibited from reviewing the WCAC's ruling on the "substantial evidence" issue ignores the language of MCL 418.861a(14) and the case law cited here.

In this regard, we observe that this Court has the authority to require even agencies of the executive branch to render decisions in a form that allows for meaningful review. Woody v Cello-Foil Products(After Remand), 450 Mich. 588, 597 (1996); Kostamo v Marquette Iron Mining Co, 405 Mich. 105, 136 (1979). As a constitutionally created state agency charged with making recommendations to this Court concerning matters of judicial discipline, the JTC is entitled, on the basis of its expertise, to deference both with respect to its findings of fact and its recommendations of sanction.

Summary Dispositions September 17, 1996: In lieu of granting leave to appeal, the orders of the Worker's Compensation Appellate Commission and the magistrate are vacated, and the case is remanded to the magistrate with directions to explicitly answer plaintiff's argument that a preponderance of the evidence establishes that the 1989 assault to his left eye would not have resulted in the loss of that eye but for the fact that it had been weakened by the 1983 work-related injury. Cf. Woody v CelloFoil Products ( After Remand), 450 Mich. 588 (1996). MCR 7.302(F)(1).