Ciaramitaro v. State Farm Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 04 June 1981 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 52449 |
| Citation | 308 N.W.2d 661,107 Mich.App. 68 |
| Parties | Mary CIARAMITARO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE FARM INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
John G. Konkel, Detroit, for plaintiff-appellant.
William D. Eggenberger, Detroit, for defendant-appellee.
Before BASHARA, P. J., and KAUFMAN and BANKS, * JJ.
Plaintiff sued to recover survivor's loss benefits for her husband's death from his no-fault insurance carrier. Defendant's motion for summary judgment was granted pursuant to GCR 1963, 117.2(1), and plaintiff appeals.
On January 26, 1979, plaintiff's decedent was in the process of conducting his normal door-to-door produce business from his truck when he was confronted by an unknown armed assailant who robbed and killed him. Plaintiff's claim for benefits from defendant was denied.
This case involves the question of whether the death of plaintiff's decedent arose out of the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of his vehicle. The trial court found that the assault was entirely unrelated to the decedent's use of his vehicle.
A number of recent cases decided by this Court have construed the phrase "arising out of the * * * use of a motor vehicle" and have uniformly required that the injured person establish a causal connection between the use of the motor vehicle and the injury. M.C.L. § 500.3105; M.S.A. § 24.13105. Such causal connection must be more than incidental or fortuitous. The injury must be foreseeably identifiable with the normal use of the vehicle. Further, this Court has stated that an assault by an armed assailant upon the driver of a car is not the type of conduct that is foreseeably identifiable with the normal use of a motor vehicle. Detroit Automobile Inter-Ins. Exchange v. Higginbotham, 95 Mich.App. 213, 290 N.W.2d 414 (1980); Hamka v. Automobile Club of Michigan, 89 Mich.App. 644, 280 N.W.2d 512 (1979); O'Key v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., 89 Mich.App. 526, 280 N.W.2d 583 (1979); Kangas v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 64 Mich.App. 1, 17, 234 N.W.2d 42 (1975).
Plaintiff attempts to distinguish this case from the above cases on the basis that the above cases involved privately insured vehicles while the present case involves a commercially insured vehicle. Therefore, plaintiff argues, the relationship between plaintiff's decedent's death and the use of his commercially insured vehicle is clearly more than incidental or fortuitous; it was foreseeably identifiable with the use of his vehicle because the decedent collected money which increased the risk of being assaulted.
We find that the...
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