Priority to pay under the No-Fault Act (NFA); The general priority rule (MCL 500.3114(1)); Applicability of the exception in MCL 500.3114(2); Whether a dealership’s shuttle van service is a “motor vehicle operated in the business of transporting passengers”; State Farm Mut Auto Ins Co v Sentry Ins; The “primary purpose/incidental nature test”; Farmers Ins Exch v AAA of MI; Michigan Automobile Insurance Placement Facility (MAIPF)

In this priority dispute under the NFA, the court held that there was a genuine issue of material fact whether a dealership’s shuttle van service constituted “a ‘motor vehicle operated in the business of transporting passengers’ under MCL 500.3114(2).” After he was injured in an accident while a passenger in a dealership shuttle van, plaintiff-Smith filed a first-party claim for no-fault benefits against the insurer of the van (defendant-Motorists Commercial Mutual Insurance), the insurer of his wife’s vehicle (defendant-Farm Bureau), and defendant-MAIPF. The MAIPF was granted summary disposition. The trial court denied Farm Bureau’s summary disposition motion, and ruled that Farm Bureau was highest in priority to pay Smith’s benefits. On appeal, the court applied “the ‘primary purpose/incidental nature test’” set out in Farmers. It found that under the first prong of the test, there was no genuine dispute of material fact that the primary purpose of the dealership’s “shuttle vans is the transportation of passengers to and from the dealership. Motorists has not presented any evidence in the trial court to refute that this is the near-exclusive purpose of the shuttle vans.” But the court concluded there was a genuine dispute of fact as to “the second prong—whether transporting passengers is a primary component of the overall business of” the dealership. The court found that “based on the record, reasonable minds might disagree about whether the shuttle van service is a primary or incidental component of the dealership’s overall business.” Thus, it reversed “the trial court’s order denying Farm Bureau summary disposition, and” remanded.