Plane Hits Truck, Truck’s Insurance Pays

The legal definition of a four-letter word (and not any of those you might be thinking) determined a Michigan truck owner’s insurance must pay to replace an airplane that hit the truck while the pilot was trying to land it on a grass strip near Cedar Springs in 2003. According to the Insurance JournalKevin Gould was legally driving the truck, owned by Dean Wall, on a road when the two-place Cessna “bounced “off the truck and flipped over. No one was injured in the accident and the owner of the airplane filed a claim against Wall’s insurance company. So far, the $18,000 claim has been upheld by two Michigan courts. The crux of the case has been the definition of the word upon. Under Michigan’s no-fault insurance laws, any accident between a vehicle designed for use upon roads with one that is not and which does not occur upon the road, requires that compensation be paid by the insurer of the road vehicle. The airplane owner successfully argued that since the airplane never touched the road (it bounced off the truck and onto the airfield) that the truck’s insurer had to pay. Wall, who now has a $59,000 claim on his insurance record (legal fees do add up), called the decision “absolutely absurd and asinine” but the insurance company has decided not to appeal the latest decision.