Mann v. Detroit Auto. Inter-Insurance Exchange
| Decision Date | 26 January 1982 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 55381,INTER-INSURANCE |
| Citation | 111 Mich.App. 637,314 N.W.2d 719 |
| Parties | Herbert MANN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DETROIT AUTOMOBILEEXCHANGE, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Citron & Citron, Detroit (by Ernest L. Citron and Charles Reisman, Detroit), for plaintiff-appellant.
Dickinson, Mourad, Brandt, Hanlon & Becker, Detroit (by William V. Taylor, II, Detroit), for defendant-appellee.
Before DANHOF, C. J., and WALSH and RILEY, JJ.
Plaintiff appeals the summary judgment entered in favor of defendant.
According to deposition testimony, an unidentified individual threw a stone at plaintiff's vehicle from an overpass as plaintiff was driving along a Detroit expressway in December, 1978. The object apparently hit the automobile's hood and windshield. Plaintiff allegedly turned his neck sharply in a reflex action and sustained neck and shoulder injuries. Plaintiff filed a suit to collect no-fault benefits for lost wages and medical bills.
Defendant moved for summary judgment under GCR 1963, 117.2(3). Defendant claimed that the injury did not arise out of the operation or use of a motor vehicle as required by the no-fault statute. The trial court granted defendant's motion and denied plaintiff's motion for rehearing. We reverse.
Under the no-fault act, an individual is entitled to personal protection insurance benefits for accidental bodily injury arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle. M.C.L. § 500.3105(1); M.S.A. § 24.13105(1). The causal connection between the injury sustained and the ownership, maintenance, or use of the automobile must be more than incidental, fortuitous, or "but for". The injury must be foreseeably identifiable with the normal ownership, maintenance, or use of the vehicle. Kangas v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 64 Mich.App. 1, 17, 235 N.W.2d 42 (1975). It is not sufficient that the motor vehicle is merely the site of the accident. Shinabarger v. Citizens Mutual Ins. Co., 90 Mich.App. 307, 314, 282 N.W.2d 301 (1979).
Ordinarily, an assault on a person in an automobile is not a compensable injury under the no-fault act. This is because ordinarily the fact that the injured person is in a car has no connection with the assault itself. The individual's presence in the automobile is merely fortuitous or incidental. See, e.g., 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), and O'Key v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co., 89 Mich.App. 526, ...
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