Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 212686; Unpublished
Judges Hood, Smolenski, and Talbot; Unanimous; Per Curiam
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: Not Applicable; Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Exclusion for Vehicles Considered Parked [§3106(1)]
Exception for Loading / Unloading [§3106(1)(b)]
Definition of Motor Vehicle (Trailers) [§3101(2)(e)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Not Applicable
CASE SUMMARY:
In this unanimous per curiam unpublished Opinion, the Court of Appeals upheld denial of plaintiff s claim for a first party no-fault benefit under the exception to the parked vehicle exclusion contained in section 3106(l)(b), on the basis that the injury did not occur during the process of loading or unloading a vehicle.
In this case, plaintiff injured his hand while helping his father load a riding lawn mower onto a trailer. During the process of loading the lawn mower onto the trailer, the front end of the trailer fell to the ground, causing injury to the plaintiff by pinning his hand between the trailer tongue and the ground. Although the plan was to hitch the trailer to a parked pickup truck, that part of the process never was reached because of the intervening injury.
Citizens argued that neither the trailer nor the lawn mower qualified as a motor vehicle under the No-Fault Act, and the pickup truck, the only motor vehicle involved, was "parked" when the accident occurred, and that none of the exceptions to the parked vehicle exclusion applied.
The Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of plaintiff s claim on the basis that the provisions of the parked vehicle exclusion and exceptions thereto did not allow for plaintiffs claim. Under section 3l06(l)(b), accidental bodily injury does not arise out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of a parked vehicle as a motor vehicle unless one of the exceptions applies. Plaintiff claimed that subsection (b) applied, in that his injury was a direct result of physical contact with property being lifted onto or lowered from the vehicle in the loading or unloading process. The court rejected plaintiffs claim that this exception applies because he was in physical contact with the trailer and was in the process of loading the trailer onto the pickup truck when the accident occurred. The court held there was no evidence that plaintiff was injured while the trailer was being lifted onto or lowered from the pickup truck in the loading process. The act of loading the trailer with the lawn mower was merely preparatory to the act of hitching the trailer to the pickup truck. Therefore, the parked vehicle exclusion exception did not apply and there was no basis for first-party benefits in this case.
Further, the plaintiff had conceded that the trailer involved in the accident was not a "motor vehicle" as defined in section 3101(2)(e).
