No-fault benefits; Insurer priority; MCL 500.3114(1) & (2); “Motor vehicle operated in the business of transporting passengers”; Farmers Ins Exch v AAA of MI; Smith v Farm Bureau Mut Ins Co of MI; “Primary purpose/incidental nature test”; Michigan Assigned Claims Plan (MACP)

The court held that plaintiff-Figueroa’s vehicle was a “motor vehicle operated in the business of transporting passengers.” Thus, under MCL 500.3114(2), the vehicle’s insurer was responsible for paying her no-fault benefits. As a result, the court affirmed summary disposition for defendant-Farmers Insurance Exchange, which was assigned her claim for benefits through the MACP. Figueroa rented the vehicle involved in the accident giving rise to the case in order to use it to drive for a rideshare company that had an agreement with the car rental company “to provide vehicles for rideshare drivers. The rental agreement included insurance coverage.” But after the accident, she applied for benefits through the MACP. Farmers refused to pay her claim. On appeal, the court concluded that because “Figueroa was an operator of her vehicle, her claim must be analyzed under the first sentence of MCL 500.3114(2), not the second.” Applying the primary purpose/incidental nature test set forth in Farmers Ins Exch and recently discussed in Smith, the court concluded that, “even viewed in the light most favorable to Figueroa, her vehicle was primarily used to transport passengers. First,” while she could drive it “for personal reasons, she testified at her deposition that she rented the vehicle from Hertz as part of its relationship with Uber and that ‘the vast majority of the time and miles’ in the car was used to transport passengers for Uber. She further explained that she drove for Uber around five hours per weekday and that she did not use the vehicle extensively for personal use. Second, [she] testified that the only ‘job and income [she] had at the time of the’” accident was from driving for Uber. Thus, even viewed in the light most favorable to her, “transporting Uber passengers was the primary purpose of Figueroa’s business and was not merely incidental.”