Court Opinion

ID: 9679474
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:53:50.785894+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:17:01.210210
License: Public Domain

Per Curiam.
Defendant appeals as of right from the trial court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of plaintiff. On July 18, 1976, when plaintiff got into his vehicle and turned the ignition key, an explosive device which had been attached to the ignition mechanism by persons unknown was detonated, severely injuring plaintiff. The trial court concluded that plaintiff’s injury occurred as a result of his operation of the vehicle and that he *61therefore was entitled to benefits as a matter of law pursuant to § 3105 of the no-fault act.
MCL 500.3105(1); MSA 24.13105(1) provides:
"Under personal protection insurance an insurer is liable to pay benefits for accidental bodily injury arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle * * *.”
Cases construing the phrase "arising out of the * * * use of a motor vehicle” uniformly require that the injured person establish a causal connection between the use of the motor vehicle and the injury. Detroit Automobile Inter-Ins Exchange v Higginbotham, 95 Mich App 213, 222; 290 NW2d 414 (1980), lv den 409 Mich 919 (1980). Such causal connection must be more than incidental, fortuitous, or "but for”. The injury must be foreseeably identifiable with the normal use, maintenance, and ownership of the vehicle. Kangas v Aetna Casualty & Surety Co, 64 Mich App 1, 17; 235 NW2d 42 (1975). While the statute does not necessitate a finding that the injury was caused directly and proximately by the use of the vehicle, causation cannot be extended to something distinctly remote. The sufficiency of the causal connection depends on the facts of each case. Williams v Citizens Mutual Ins Co of America, 94 Mich App 762, 764-765; 290 NW2d 76 (1980).
These principles have been applied by several panels of this Court to deny recovery of no-fault benefits to the victim of an assault which occurred in or near an automobile. See A & G Associates, Inc v Michigan Mutual Ins Co, 110 Mich App 293; 314 NW2d 799 (1981), Higginbotham, supra, Hamka v Automobile Club of Michigan, 89 Mich App 644; 280 NW2d 512 (1979), O’Key v State Farm Mutual *62Automobile Ins Co, 89 Mich App 526; 280 NW2d 583 (1979), and Kangas, supra.
We believe that there was an insufficient causal relationship between plaintiff’s use of the vehicle and his injuries. The fact that the explosive device was set in plaintiff’s vehicle rather than some other location was a mere fortuity. Even though plaintiff’s act of turning the ignition key detonated the explosion, the explosive device, rather than the automobile, was the true instrumentality of the injury. The injury clearly was not foreseeably identifiable with the normal use, maintenance, and ownership of the vehicle. Kangas, supra, Higginbotham, supra.
The order of summary judgment in favor of plaintiff is reversed, and summary judgment is entered in favor of defendant.
Reversed.