A Michigan appellate court has ruled that a truck driver was not entitled to no-fault personal injury protection ("PIP") benefits for injuries he suffered after he stopped his truck, inspected a fire near the axle, and was injured in an explosion.
The Case
Ibrahim Odeh was employed as a driver for R-1 Express, a Michigan company, and was operating a semi-truck owned by R-1 in Georgia when he observed smoke coming from the area of the second rear axle of the truck. Mr. Odeh pulled the truck over and got out to inspect a fire near the axle. There was an explosion and he was seriously injured.
Mr. Odeh claimed PIP benefits under a commercial policy issued by Sentry Insurance that insured the truck. Sentry denied the claim, and Mr. Odeh sued.
The trial court granted summary disposition in favor of Sentry, and Mr. Odeh appealed.
Michigan Law
MCL 500.3111 provided:
Personal protection insurance benefits are payable for accidental bodily injury suffered in an accident occurring out of this state, if the accident occurs within the United States, its territories and possessions or in Canada, and the person whose injury is the basis of the claim was at the time of the accident a named insured under a personal protection insurance policy, his spouse, a relative of either domiciled in the same household or an occupant of a vehicle involved in the accident whose owner or registrant was insured under a personal protection insurance policy or has provided security approved by the secretary of state under subsection (4) of section 3101.
The Appellate Court's Decision
The appellate court affirmed.
In its decision, the appellate court explained that Mr. Odeh would be covered under the Sentry policy if he either was an occupant of the insured truck involved in the accident or a "named insured" under the Sentry policy. The appellate court decided he was neither.
First, it ruled that Mr. Odeh was not an occupant of the truck at the time of the explosion, citing his own deposition testimony that "admitted" that he was not:
Q. Did you just – were you able to just lean over and look under the trailer?
A. Yeah.
Q. Okay. So you were on your two feet?
A. Yes.
Q. When the explosion happened, did you have – were you resting on the trailer at all with your hands or anything like that?
A. No.
Q. Was any part of your body in physical contact with the trailer when the explosion happened?
A. No.
Mr. Odeh, the appellate court said, was "outside the vehicle" and not in contact with it and, therefore, was not occupying it at the time of the explosion.
The appellate court also found that Mr. Odeh was not a named insured under the Sentry policy, noting that the declaration page "clearly" identified only R-1 Express as a named insured. It rejected Mr. Odeh's contention that a corporation such as R-1 Express could not be a named insured under a motor vehicle policy because it could not suffer an accidental bodily injury.
Sentry, the appellate court concluded, owed no PIP benefits to Mr. Odeh.