Farmers Insurance's over-reaching defense is rejected by Court of Appeals

A driver cannot collect PIP benefits from his no fault insurer if he is operating an uninsured vehicle that he owns.   Farmers Insurance attempted to apply this provision to avoid paying PIP benefits to Arthur Burnett, after he was injured while driving his mother's uninsured car.  The evidence demonstrated unequivocally that Burnett was not an owner or registrant of the vehicle and did not have regular access to the car.  If he had regular use of the car for 30 days, Burnett could be treated as an "owner" by law, however, the testimony showed that his parents almost never allowed him use of the vehicle, and on the few occasions when he was allowed to use the vehicle, it was usually to run errands for his mother.  By law, he clearly was not an "owner" of the uninsured vehicle.