Farm Bureau v. Hanover Insurance Group et al.

Monday December 20, 2021

Veronica Prange obtained summary disposition of Plaintiff’s claims against her client, Hanover Insurance Group, in a lawsuit in which Plaintiff sought a declaration from the Circuit Court that Hanover Insurance Group was the insurer in the highest order of priority to pay the underlying Claimant’s First Party No-Fault benefits. Ms. Prange filed a Motion for Summary Disposition and a Supplemental Brief in Support of the Motion arguing that because the Claimant was an uninsured pedestrian on the date of the subject matter accident and the accident itself took place after the statutory amendments to MCL 500.3114(1) and MCL 500.3115 went into effect on June 11, 2019, Plaintiff was the insurer in the highest order of priority to pay the Claimant’s No-Fault benefits. In addition, Ms. Prange argued that there were no applicable exceptions to the statutory provisions, regardless of the substance of a Michigan Assigned Claims Plan bulletin on which Plaintiff heavily relied. On the date of the hearing on Ms. Prange’s Motion, the Court waived oral argument and instead read an opinion and order onto the record that agreed with Defendant Hanover’s arguments, affirming that the Court was bound by the amended versions of MCL 500.3114(1) and MCL 500.3115 and there were no applicable exceptions to the same. The Court ruled that Plaintiff was the insurer in the highest order of priority relative to the Claimant’s No-Fault claims and that Hanover Insurance Group was not in the order of priority whatsoever.

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