Claims for underinsured motorist (UIM) & uninsured motorist (UM) coverage; Appellate jurisdiction; MCR 7.203(A)(1); “Aggrieved party”; Effect of a stipulated dismissal with prejudice order; Stanley v Farmers Ins Exch; Michigan Automobile Insurance Placement Facility (MAIPF)

The court held that it lacked jurisdiction over plaintiff’s appeal related to his UIM and UM coverage claims because he was not an aggrieved party under Stanley in light of the stipulated order of dismissal with prejudice. After the trial court granted defendant-MemberSelect’s motion for partial summary disposition dismissing those claims, the parties entered into a stipulated order dismissing the remaining claims against MemberSelect and defendant-MAIPF. The situation was similar to Stanley in that plaintiff challenged “an earlier summary disposition ruling involving the same party with whom plaintiff subsequently entered into a stipulated dismissal with prejudice” and the stipulated order did not contain “language preserving plaintiff’s right to appellate review of the previous ruling.” He sought to distinguish his case “by asserting that the claims addressed in the prior summary disposition ruling were distinct from those resolved by the stipulated dismissal. But Stanley contains no such limitation.” Rather, the court there “broadly held that when a plaintiff seeks to challenge a prior interlocutory ruling involving the same defendant with whom the plaintiff later enters into a stipulated order of dismissal, the plaintiff must preserve its appellate rights in that stipulated order. Otherwise, the plaintiff is not an ‘aggrieved party’ entitled to appellate review under MCR 7.203(A)(1).” Thus, the dispositive consideration under Stanley was whether “plaintiff stipulated to the final dismissal with the same party that obtained the prior interlocutory ruling—not whether the claims addressed in the prior ruling were identical to those resolved by the stipulated dismissal.” The result was the same here as in Stanley – the court lacked jurisdiction over plaintiff’s appeal.