Court Opinion

ID: 9733027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:50:07.347171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:37.806996
License: Public Domain

RANDALL, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent and would affirm the trial court’s conclusion that respondent was alighting from a vehicle when injured and is entitled to no-fault insurance benefits.
*514Both parties frame the appeal in the context of two issues: 1) was respondent somewhere in the process of “alighting” from the vehicle when she slipped on ice, fell, and was injured; and 2) was the proper nexus present between her conduct and “the use and maintenance of a motor vehicle,” enabling respondent to have coverage under a motor vehicle insurance policy.
I agree with the trial court and the majority that only one issue needs resolution, whether respondent was “somewhere in the process of alighting” from the automobile when she fell. The “use and maintenance of a motor vehicle” issue needs no analysis to resolve. Appellant admits the process of alighting from a car, by definition, is, logically enough, an integral part of use of a car. Minn.Stat. § 65B.43, subd. 3 (1988). Appellant agrees if respondent was in the process of alighting from a car when injured, there is coverage.
The pertinent facts are not in dispute. Appellant accepts the facts set out by the trial court in its Order and Memorandum:
On January 12, 1989, the plaintiff, seventy-seven year old Pearl Christensen, her sister, Virginia, and her brother-in-law, Paul, drove to the LaBelle Park condominium complex in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, to visit the plaintiffs nephew at his home there. On that date, the streets and sidewalks of Columbia Heights were slick with ice. The plaintiff exited the automobile from the rear passenger door on the driver’s side. Keeping one hand on the body of the car to steady herself, she picked her way over the ice toward the front of the vehicle. The plaintiff rounded the front left bumper, still bracing herself on the car. Midway across the automobile’s front end, she lost her footing on the ice and fell, sustaining fractures of her arm and hip. She was subsequently required to undergo a hip replacement.
We must interpret these facts to determine whether respondent was still in the process of alighting when injured or had she completed alighting and gone on to become a mere pedestrian walking down a slippery street. First of all, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that at the time of her fall respondent was not exposed to risks associated with alighting from a car, but rather, had her fall due to a premise’s hazard unrelated to “risks associated with motoring.” The majority cites Classified Ins. Corp. v. Vodinelich, 368 N.W.2d 921 (Minn.1985). The facts in Classified are not similar and its holding is not pertinent to this case. In Classified, a woman committed suicide by running a car in a closed garage; car exhaust accidentally seeped into the attached house and killed two infants. The basic conclusion the supreme court drew from that fact situation to deny motor vehicle coverage was that the vehicle was not being used “for transportation purposes” at the time of the suicide. Id. at 923. Here, we do not have a “for transportation purposes” or “use or maintenance” issue. We have only the question of what is encompassed in “alighting from a car.” Questions of transportation, use, and maintenance are resolved for or against respondent when the issue of alighting is resolved for or against respondent.
I find that respondent’s fall, undisputedly due to icy conditions on the street where she parked, is a direct risk associated with motoring in the State of Minnesota. The interpretation or conclusion to be drawn from facts needs to have a basis in common sense. In Minnesota during the winter months, it is the rule rather than the exception that (unless parked indoors) you must watch your footing as you get out of a car. Always the possibility, and at times, a strong probability, exists that some accumulation of ice and snow will cause slipperiness in the area of your car.
At any given time, only a small fraction of cars out and about our streets in the winter have the option of parking only inside fully enclosed facilities. The hundreds of thousands of parking spaces on residential and commercial streets in any region in the state attest to the simple fact that, when you get out of a car in the winter in Minnesota, you have to watch where you place your feet because of the possibility of falling and injuring yourself. *515That is exactly what happened here. Respondent watched carefully where she placed her feet and how she moved along the car, but still slipped and injured herself.
We note respondent’s age of 77. Perhaps a younger, more athletic woman could have avoided the fall. That is immaterial to the analysis. Defendants “take their plaintiffs as they find them.”
Unlike the majority, I find respondent at the time she left the car was directly exposed to a standard Minnesota winter risk associated with alighting from a vehicle. The only reason this coverage question is close is that it is honestly debatable whether the alighting risk respondent exposed herself to by getting out of a car on a winter street had concluded. If it had concluded, she was merely a pedestrian walking along a slippery public street who slipped and fell. That would preclude coverage. But if she had not finished the complete process of alighting, she is entitled to insurance coverage and the benefits.
The majority and I agree no single fact is dispositive in favor of coverage or against coverage. We both find State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Levinson, 438 N.W.2d 110 (Minn.App.1989) and Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Garcia, 368 So.2d 1313 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1979), pet. for rev. denied 378 So.2d 344 (Fla.1979), cited in Levinson, 438 N.W.2d at 114, helpful. The question of alighting is a question of degree to be determined from all the facts. Determining the limit of activity encompassed within the term “alighting from” is subjective and difficult in this case. The presence or absence of physical contact with the car, by itself, is not determinative. However, her physical contact with the car tends to support coverage rather than support a denial of coverage. I find her continued and uninterrupted physical contact with the car as she moved out of the back seat, through the car door, and then along the side of the vehicle supports the trial court’s conclusion she was still in the process of alighting when she fell.
Looking at all of the facts, including that respondent arrived at the location of the injury by a car, exited from that car, and then, not feeling sure enough of her footing to start walking on her own, continued to use the car as support; I find the trial court properly concluded respondent had not completed the transition of a passenger alighting to a mere pedestrian walking the street.
Had the street been dry and respondent sure of her footing, had she slammed the car door shut and briskly taken a half dozen steps directly away from the car before falling, a strong argument for a completed alighting could be made, and thus no coverage. Had respondent fallen with one foot inside the car and one on the street, or with both feet on the street but both hands clinging to the door handle on an open door, a strong case for coverage is made. This case falls between the cracks. Had respondent worked her way around to the front of the car, and then turned and started walking toward the house, and then fell while negotiating the curb or walking down the street, it would push the limits of due process to mandate insurance coverage. But on the facts of this case, agreed upon by both parties, I agree with the trial court the process of alighting was ongoing when respondent fell. This passenger’s alighting from that car was not completed.
The issue is close, and the facts give rise to different credible conclusions. But, it is not offensive to notions of fair play and logic that respondent prevail. I conclude the trial court properly found coverage for respondent.
I dissent and would have affirmed the trial court.