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Gauntlett v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co.8/15/2000
FOR PUBLICATION
9:10 a.m.
Updated Copy October 13, 2000
In this action for no-fault survivor's loss benefits, defendant Auto-Owners Insurance Company appeals as of right from the May 19, 1997, directed verdict in favor of plaintiff Trevor Gauntlett. Defendant also appeals as of right from the trial court's August 29, 1996, order denying defendant's motion for summary disposition and the trial court's January 23, 1997, order denying defendant's renewed motion for summary disposition and granting plaintiff's motion for summary disposition with respect to liability. We reverse.
In 1993, plaintiff was fourteen years old and lived in Augusta, Michigan, with his mother, Ellen Flinn, who was divorced. Flinn was not employed; however, she was the beneficiary of a trust. On March 19, 1993, plaintiff and Flinn were in an automobile accident. Flinn suffered injuries that led to her death that evening. Plaintiff became the sole beneficiary of the trust after his mother's death. With the assistance of his next friend and sister, Meggen Maloney, plaintiff submitted a claim for no-fault insurance survivor's benefits under his mother's policy with defendant. Defendant denied the claim, contending that plaintiff failed to show any compensable loss of support after his mother's death.
Plaintiff filed a claim in the circuit court on November 2, 1995, seeking payment of the requested benefits by defendant. Defendant moved for summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116(C)(10), arguing that plaintiff suffered no compensable loss after his mother's death because he continued to receive support from weekly child support payments and trust withdrawals, which were in the trustee's discretion but never denied to plaintiff; thus he received the same support after his mother's death as he received before her death. Plaintiff opposed the motion and moved for summary disposition pursuant to MCR 2.116(I)(2), arguing that the trust corpus was decreased because of estate and inheritance taxes, funeral expenses, and bequests; therefore, plaintiff suffered a yearly loss of investment income. On August 23, 1996, the trial court entered an order denying both parties' motions and holding that plaintiff was required to show that he suffered a loss due to his mother's death, which the court would measure as the difference between the amount he received from the trust, through disbursements to his mother, during his mother's life and the amount he received in the trustee's discretion after his mother's death.
Defendant filed a renewed motion for summary disposition on November 15, 1996, arguing that plaintiff failed to show a loss as required by the court's August 23, 1996, order. The trial court denied defendant's motion and held that it would measure plaintiff's loss as the decrease in his mother's income-producing assets. The court then granted plaintiff's motion for summary disposition with regard to liability only.
A jury trial on the issue of damages was held on April 21, 1998. Plaintiff testified that he received various disbursements from the trustee after his mother's death, including disbursements for school, vacations, and a car, and he had never been denied a disbursement when he requested one. He further stated that he received approximately $33,000 a year in child support, half of which he was allowed to use and half of which was deposited into the trust. Pat Lewellen, an employee of the Old Kent Bank Trust Department, testified that her bank managed Ellen Flinn's trust. Lewellen stated that plaintiff was the sole beneficiary of the trust after Flinn's death and he would be entitled to all the trust income at age eighteen, half of the trust corpus at
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