Michigan Court of Appeals; Docket No. 243502; Unpublished
Judges Cooper, O’Connell, and Fort Hood; unanimous; per curiam
Official Michigan Reporter Citation: Not applicable, Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Exception for Loading / Unloading [3106(1)(b)]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Not applicable
CASE SUMMARY:
In this unanimous unpublished per curiam opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary disposition for defendant that plaintiff’s injuries did not come within the loading or unloading exception to the parked vehicle exclusion of §3106(1)(b) which excludes coverage for injuries arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of a parked vehicle as a motor vehicle, unless “the injury was a direct result of physical contact with equipment permanently mounted on the vehicle, while the equipment was being operated or used, or property being lifted onto or lowered from the vehicle in the loading or unloading process.”
In this case, plaintiff drove to a local K-Mart Store to buy some bags of garden soil. He parked his car 15 feet away from the outdoor display area and began carrying the bags of dirt to the trunk. As he picked up one bag of soil, he slipped on wet dirt on the ground, tripped over another bag of dirt or caught his foot in a pallet and fell. His hip broke when it struck a pallet.
Finding that the plaintiff did not satisfy the “loading or unloading” exception to the parked vehicle exclusion of §3106(1)(b), the court stated that plaintiff failed to show that his injury was the direct result of physical contact with the bag of dirt. There was no evidence that the act of lifting or carrying the bag caused the plaintiff to fall. Second, plaintiff was not in the process of lifting the bag of soil into the vehicle at the point in the loading process when his injury occurred. Third, plaintiff’s injury was not causally connected to the loading of the vehicle. For these reasons, the trial court grant of summary disposition was affirmed.
