Court Opinion

ID: 9750321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 14:49:49.871992+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:07.105570
License: Public Domain

McEWEN, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
The majority opinion understandably concludes that the order which granted the motion of West American for summary judgment on the claim of appellant for first party benefits is interlocutory because appellant is still able to pursue before arbitrators an alternate claim for uninsured or underinsured benefits, thereby requiring that the appeal be quashed. The majority does not, however, simply quash the appeal but proceeds instead to a learned discussion of what will, for the arbitrators, be an issue of fundamental focus, namely, did the injuries of appellant arise “out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle”.1 As many advocates will characterize that further discussion by the majority as commendable, as will label it needless dicta. Those advocates would all agree, however, that once the issue becomes a matter of discussion, expression of a contrary view becomes a matter of obligation. Thus it is that I state that, in my opinion and contrary to the expression of the majority, the injuries of appellant did arise from “maintenance or use of a motor vehicle”.
West American states repeatedly in its preliminary objections, its memorandum in support of the preliminary objections, and its brief to this court that appellant suffered the injuries while “she was attempting to remove a gasoline can from the rear of her automobile”. Therefore, West American, in my view, acknowledges — admits if you will — that appellant was “unloading” the vehicle. The carefully craft*427ed opinion of President Judge James E. Rowley in Omodio v. Aetna Life & Casualty, 384 Pa.Super. 544, 559 A.2d 570 (1989), leaves no doubt that “loading and unloading” is within the certain embrace of the MVFRL phrase “maintenance and use” of a vehicle. See also: Callahan v. Federal Kemper Insurance Company, 390 Pa.Super. 201, 568 A.2d 264 (1989). Thus, I would hold, were the question before us, that since appellant was unloading the vehicle she is eligible for recovery under the MVFRL.

. The phrase “maintenance or use of a motor vehicle” is a condition precedent for the recovery of first party benefits (75 Pa.C.S. § 1713(a)) which are the subject of this appeal, as well as of the uninsured motorist coverage (75 Pa.C.S. § 1731(b)) and underinsured motorist coverage (75 Pa.C.S. § 1731(c)) claims which are the subject of arbitration.