Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 80107; Published
Judges K. B. Burns, Branson, and Tahvonen; Unanimous; Per Curiam
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: 145 Mich App 521; Link to Opinion
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Compulsory Insurance Requirements for Owners or Registrants of Motor Vehicles Required to Be Registered [§3101(1)]
General Rule of Priority [§3114(1)]
Exception for Employer Provided Vehicles [§3114(3)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Motor Vehicle Code (Registration and Title Requirements) (MCL 257.201, et seq.)
CASE SUMMARY:
This per curiam Opinion dealt with a priority dispute between plaintiff’s personal no-fault insurer and his employer's nofault insurer. The Court of Appeals held that under the facts of the case, the employer's no-fault insurer was obligated to pay PIP benefits. Plaintiff sustained his injury while occupying a pickup truck, called a "yard taxi" owned by his employer. The accident occurred on private property. The pickup truck was not registered. Plaintiff’s employer claimed that the truck was not required to be registered for the reason that it was only driven on public highways for the limited purpose of crossing highways to go from one-property of the employer to another. The Court of Appeals rejected this notion because, under the facts of this case, the pickup truck was driven, on a fairly regular basis, along three and a half miles of highway in order to go from one location to another. For that reason, the pickup truck was required to be registered and insured under the no-fault statute. Therefore, the employer's insurance company which insured, on a fleet basis, all of the employer's vehicles which were required to have no-fault coverage, was thus obligated to pay no-fault benefits for plaintiff’s injuries.