An appellate court in Michigan, reversing a trial court's decision, has concluded that the plaintiff was not “related” to her step-grandmother for purposes of the definition of “relative” in the step-grandmother's automobile insurance policy.
The Case
Yuan Lei was struck by a car while crossing a street on foot. Her mother, Yufang Cai, and her father, Kai Zhi Lei, were divorced. Yuan Lei lived part of the time with her mother and her step-father, Brian Goetz, in the home of her step-grandmother, Merilyn Goetz. Ms. Goetz had died about three months before Yuan Lei's accident, but her automobile insurance policy through Progressive Michigan Insurance Company continued after her death.
Yuan Lei sought to recover benefits under Ms. Goetz's policy, which provided uninsured and underinsured motorist benefits to her relatives. Progressive declined to cover her injuries, and she sued.
Progressive moved for summary disposition, contending that Ms. Goetz's policy did not cover Yuan Lei because she was not related to Ms. Goetz as a step-child but, rather, was her step-grandchild.
The trial court denied the insurer's motion, declaring that, “clearly the child is a step-grandchild and the child is clearly related to the original policy holder … by marriage, in the sense that she is the grandchild as a result of the marriage[.]”
Progressive appealed.
The Progressive Policy
The Progressive policy defined:
insured person
as:
you or a relative
, which was defined as:
a person residing in the same household as you, and related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, and includes a ward, stepchild, or foster childThe Appellate Court's Decision
The appellate court reversed, agreeing with Progressive that its policy did not cover Yuan Lei because she was Ms. Goetz's step-grandchild and, therefore, was not “a relative” as defined in its policy.
In its decision, the appellate court explained that the policy provided that “a relative” was “a person residing in the same household as you, and related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, and includes a ward, stepchild, or foster child.” In the appellate court's view, if it interpreted the phrase “related to you by … marriage …” to include step-relationships, it would render the phrase “and includes … stepchildren …” surplusage. It then held that because the phrase “and includes … stepchildren …” provided that step-children were relatives in addition to persons related to the insured by marriage, the phrase “related to you by … marriage …” did not include other step-relationships.
The appellate court concluded that because Yuan Lei was neither related to Ms. Goetz by marriage, nor was she her step-child, she was not insured as “a relative” under the terms of the Progressive policy.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].