No-fault insurance; Personal protection insurance (PIP) benefits; MCL 500.3107(1)(a); Motorcycle priority; MCL 500.3114(5); Capped PIP coverage; MCL 500.3107c; Lower-priority insurer; Mary Free Bed Rehab Hosp v Esurance Prop & Cas Co

The court held that after the highest-priority insurer’s capped PIP coverage was exhausted, plaintiff-medical provider could seek remaining allowable expenses from lower-priority insurers whose policies provided higher available coverage. The injured person was riding a motorcycle when he collided with a motor vehicle, received medical care from plaintiff, and later died. Defendant-Geico insured the involved motor vehicle and paid its capped PIP medical-benefit limit of $249,500, leaving approximately $255,000 in unpaid allowable expenses. Plaintiff then sought payment from defendant-Progressive, which insured the injured person’s motor vehicles with unlimited PIP medical coverage, but Progressive denied the claim because it was lower in priority under MCL 500.3114(5). On appeal, the court held that Mary Free Bed controlled because it addressed the “precise question” whether a claimant or medical provider may recover from a lower-priority insurer after the highest-priority insurer’s capped PIP coverage is exhausted. The court explained that while MCL 500.3114 establishes the “order of priority among insurers,” those provisions do not “categorically bar recovery” from a lower-priority insurer when “additional benefits remain available under another policy.” Because Geico paid its capped coverage limit, Progressive’s policies provided higher available PIP coverage, and the material facts were undisputed, plaintiff was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Reversed and remanded.