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McFarland v Travelers Insurance Company; (COA-UNP, 6/17/2004, RB # 2469)

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Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 245771; Unpublished   
Judges Neff, Zahra, and Murray; unanimous; per curiam 
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: Not applicable; Link to Opinion


STATUTORY INDEXING: 
Exclusion for Parked Vehicles Covered by Workers Comp [3106(2)] 

TOPICAL INDEXING: 
Not applicable


CASE SUMMARY: 
In this unanimous unpublished per curiam opinion, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court ruling that the parked vehicle exclusion of 3106(2)(a) did not apply to plaintiff’s claim for PIP benefits where the allegedly parked vehicle began to move and the tractor trailer was still moving when plaintiff was injured.

There was no dispute that plaintiff incurred injury while loading or unloading a tractor-trailer in the course of his employment and that the injury was compensable by workers’ compensation benefits. Under 3106(2)(a), if the vehicle were parked, the provisions of that statute would operate to exclude coverage for PIP benefits because that statute holds that accidental bodily injury does not arise out of the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of a parked vehicle as a motor vehicle, if benefits under the Workers’ Disability Act are available to an employee who sustains the injury in the course of his employment while loading, unloading, or doing mechanical work on a vehicle. In this case, the only dispute was whether the vehicle was parked.

The Court of Appeals held that a vehicle is parked only when it is stopped and standing and its wheels are not moving. If it is moving, it is not parked. In this case, the tractor-trailer was meant to be parked and indeed had been parked when first stopped at the loading dock. For whatever reason, its wheels began to move and the tractor-trailer was still moving when plaintiff was injured. Therefore, the trial court did not err in ruling that the parked vehicle exclusion did not apply because the vehicle was not parked.


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