In this third-party negligence case, Epps v USAA, et al, (Unpub, COA No. 357818), the Plaintiff Ophelia Epps was involved in a motor vehicle accident on March 3, 2019 with Defendants Tammy Jones and Destiny Johnson. Plaintiff asserted that her motor vehicle was rear ended by the vehicles driven by Johnson and Jones and that she was seriously injured as a result.
The Court of Appeals addressed the key question of whether Plaintiff, who claimed that she was a Georgia resident but was driving a motor vehicle registered in Michigan, was required to maintain a Michigan no-fault insurance policy.
Plaintiff leased her motor vehicle from a dealership in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She asserted that she had been a Georgia resident since 2012, and she had a Georgia driver’s license and mailing address. However, Plaintiff’s vehicle which had been registered to Plaintiff since January of 2018, was registered to an address in Eastpointe, Michigan and had a Michigan license plate. She purchased a Georgia automobile insurance policy issued by Defendant Garrison Property and Casualty Insurance Company and used her Georgia address to obtain that policy. She claimed that policy provided personal injury protection coverage although it was not equivalent to Michigan PIP.
The Court of Appeals first noted that Plaintiff’s argument related to MCL 500.3163’s non-residency provision was not raised until the appeal and thus was not preserved for consideration. The Court then addressed Plaintiff’s argument that she was not required to maintain Michigan insurance to assert a third-party claim, and her claims were not barred by MCL 500.3135(2)(c) because she was a resident of Georgia who did not operate her vehicle in Michigan for more than 30 days. The Court noted that Plaintiff admitted that her vehicle was registered in Michigan (and did not explain why it was registered in Michigan) such that whether she was required to register it in Michigan was irrelevant. The Court concluded that because nonresident owners are required to register their vehicles in Michigan when operated in the state for more than 90 days, it follows that an alleged nonresident owner who registered her vehicle in Michigan must maintain the required insurance to be eligible for no-fault benefits.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s granting of summary disposition, concluding that because Plaintiff registered her vehicle in Michigan, she was required to maintain the coverage set forth in MCL 500.3101(1). Plaintiff acknowledged that her Georgia policy did not include Michigan PIP benefits, so Plaintiff failed to maintain the required coverage under MCL 500.3101(1), and thus her third-party claims were barred by MCL 500.3135(2)(c).
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Sarah Nadeau, Editor of The Garan Report Publication, is a Shareholder in our Detroit Office. Sarah can be reached at 313.446.1530 or snadeau@garanlucow.com