Michigan Compiled Laws Section 500.3105 is the statute that turns on personal protection insurance (PIP) benefits after a motor vehicle accident. It says an insurer must pay PIP benefits when a person suffers accidental bodily injury arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle, and it says the insurer owes those benefits without regard to who caused the crash. Every PIP claim in Michigan has to clear the requirements in this one section before any other part of the no-fault act matters.
The Four Requirements Built Into Subsection (1)
Subsection (1) is a single sentence, but it carries four separate requirements. The injury must be accidental. It must be bodily. It must arise out of one of four specific vehicle-related activities — ownership, operation, maintenance, or use. And the vehicle must have been functioning as a motor vehicle at the relevant moment. If a claim fails any one of these, PIP benefits are not owed, no matter how clearly the other three are satisfied.
The practical consequence is that disputes under Section 3105 almost always come down to one of those four elements. Insurers denying claims point to the element they think is missing. Claimants arguing for coverage have to show each one is present.
Fault Doesn’t Matter
Subsection (2) is what makes the system genuinely “no-fault.” PIP benefits are payable regardless of who caused the accident. A driver who ran the red light still collects PIP from their own insurer. Comparative fault, contributory negligence, and the other doctrines that control ordinary personal injury claims do not reduce or defeat PIP benefits. The only intent question Section 3105 asks is whether the injury itself was intentional, which is a different inquiry (covered below).
Michigan does restrict a driver’s ability to sue the other driver for pain and suffering unless injuries meet a separate threshold, but that limitation lives elsewhere in the Insurance Code. For purposes of Section 3105, fault is simply not part of the analysis.
What Counts as Bodily Injury
Subsection (3) defines “bodily injury” more broadly than the phrase suggests. It covers physical harm, death resulting from the injury, and damage to or loss of a prosthetic device connected to the injury.
The prosthetic-device language matters. A prosthetic limb, hearing aid, or similar device destroyed in a crash is treated as bodily injury rather than property damage, which keeps the cost of replacement inside PIP. The inclusion of death means that when a crash kills someone, survivors can pursue PIP benefits, including funeral and burial expenses under MCL 500.3107 and survivor’s loss benefits under MCL 500.3108 that replace what the deceased would have contributed to dependents.
When an Injury Is “Accidental”
Subsection (4) creates a presumption that works in the claimant’s favor. Bodily injury is accidental unless the person suffered it intentionally or the claimant caused it intentionally. The insurer carries the burden of proving intent; the claimant does not have to prove accident. Deliberate self-harm or intentionally ramming another vehicle to injure its occupants would disqualify a claim. Ordinary carelessness, recklessness, or even gross negligence will not.
The statute then carves out an exception that protects people acting in emergencies. Even if a person knows an injury is substantially certain to result from their action, they do not cause or suffer the injury “intentionally” if they acted to prevent injury to any person — including themselves — or to prevent damage to property. A driver who swerves into a ditch to miss a pedestrian, knowing the swerve will injure them, is still covered. Without this provision, split-second protective decisions could cost people their benefits.
Ownership, Operation, Maintenance, or Use
The statute lists four vehicle-related activities, and an injury only needs to connect to one of them. Each has a distinct meaning:
- Ownership refers to holding legal title or a proprietary interest in the vehicle. It can matter when a defect injures an owner even while the vehicle sits still.
- Operation means physically controlling the vehicle’s driving mechanisms. Driving is the obvious case, but courts have found operation in situations involving the controls short of actually moving down the road.
- Maintenance covers upkeep and repair, from a shop lift to a driveway oil change.
- Use is the broadest of the four. It covers the ordinary ways people interact with a vehicle for its transportation purpose: loading cargo, getting in and out, riding as a passenger.
Falling within one of these categories is necessary but not sufficient. The injury also has to arise out of that activity in the sense the next requirement demands.
The “Arising Out Of” Causal Link
The phrase “arising out of” requires a real causal connection between the injury and the vehicle’s involvement. This is where many claims actually fail. The Michigan Supreme Court set the controlling standard in Thornton v. Allstate Insurance Co., holding that the connection must be “more than incidental, fortuitous, or ‘but for'” and that the vehicle’s involvement must be “directly related to its character as a motor vehicle.”1Justia Law. Thornton v Allstate Ins Co
The vehicle cannot just be the place where something unfortunate happened. A fight that breaks out inside a parked car does not arise out of the car’s use; the car is only the location. A pedestrian struck by a moving vehicle easily meets the standard. Someone who trips on a curb after getting out of a car may or may not, depending on the facts. Asking “would this injury have happened but for the vehicle?” is explicitly not enough under Thornton.
“As a Motor Vehicle”
The statute does not stop at “use of a motor vehicle.” It says “use of a motor vehicle as a motor vehicle.” That final phrase is doing real work. The vehicle has to be performing — or be closely connected to performing — its transportation function.
If someone turns a van into a stationary food stand, uses a pickup bed as a platform for a non-vehicular task, or runs equipment off an idling engine for a purpose unrelated to driving, the vehicle is not functioning as a motor vehicle at that moment. Injuries tied to those uses may fall outside Section 3105 even though a motor vehicle is undeniably present.1Justia Law. Thornton v Allstate Ins Co
Parked Vehicles
A stationary car is, by itself, arguably not functioning as a motor vehicle. MCL 500.3106 handles this problem separately. It generally excludes injuries connected to parked vehicles from PIP coverage, with specific exceptions. One applies when the injury results from direct physical contact with equipment permanently mounted on the vehicle while that equipment is being used, or when property is being lifted onto or lowered from the vehicle during loading or unloading.2Justia Law. Miller v Auto-Owners Insurance Company An injury from a hydraulic lift gate on a delivery truck can fit. Slipping on ice beside a parked car generally does not, because the vehicle itself did not cause the injury.
What Section 3105 Does and Doesn’t Decide
Section 3105 answers one question: is the insurer liable to pay PIP benefits at all? It does not say how much, which benefits, which insurer, or by when. Those answers live in other provisions of the no-fault act. MCL 500.3107 defines the categories of benefits available — medical care, work loss, replacement services, funeral expenses — and sets their limits.3Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 500.3107 MCL 500.3114 sets the priority rules that identify which insurer pays.4Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 500.3114 MCL 500.3142 sets the 30-day payment clock and the 12% interest rate for overdue benefits.5Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 500.3142 Deadlines for notice and suit sit in MCL 500.3145.
The point of Section 3105 is to establish the trigger. Once an injury clears its four requirements — accidental, bodily, tied to ownership, operation, maintenance, or use, and connected to the vehicle in its character as a motor vehicle — the rest of the no-fault act takes over to fill in the specifics.