Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 295485; Unpublished
Judges Owens, Markey, and Meter; Unanimous; per curiam
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: Not applicable, Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Not applicable
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Release and Settlements
CASE SUMMARY:
In this unanimous, unpublished per curiam opinion, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s denial of Defendant’s Motion for Summary Disposition where Defendant Citizens argued that the plaintiff signed a release in connection with her third-party negligence claim against the driver of the vehicle which was broadly worded and which Defendant argued acted as a release of all first-party benefits claims against Citizens.
In affirming the trial court ruling in favor of the plaintiff, the Court of Appeals compared the language of the Release in the instant case to Release language contained in cases relied upon by Defendant Citizens, namely Romska v. Opper 234 Mich App 512 (1999) and Shay v. Aldrich, unpublished Court of Appeals Docket No. 282550.
After first noting that Romska had recently been overruled and that Shay had been reversed, the Court of Appeals nevertheless proceeded to analyze the language of the Release which released:
“all liability, claims, judgments, demands, controversies, agreements, damages, actions, and causes of action whatsoever, either in law or in entity against any other persons, firms, or corporations which the undersigned … shall or may have … resulted from the accidents …”
The Court held this language did not release claims of first party benefits against Citizens. The Court pointed out that the “any other persons” language comes into play only in delineating the scope of the release from liability that is applicable to the tortfeasors. The Court stated that Citizens was disingenuous in arguing on appeal that the language at issue in this case is “identical” to that in Romska.
