Court again holds car door is not "equipment permanently mounted on car;" fall while closing door is not "unloading."
Cheryl Dinkins suffered injury when she slipped on ice while pulling a bag of CDs out of her car. One hand was on the door of the car and the other was holding the bag of personal property when she fell. Nevertheless, the Court followed recent pro-insurance precedent and held that she wasn't entitled to PIP benefits (wages and medical, basically) under the no fault act because she wasn't "alighting" or "unloading" her car when she fell and therefore her injuries did not "arise out of the use...of a motor vehicle."
The Court held that because Dinkins' car was parked and her aide wasn't present, and because Dinkins did not know how long she was in the car before exiting and unloading the bag of CDs, she hadn't proved that she was using the car for transportation purposes. The Court held that even though she testified she had been at a friend's home earlier, she may simply have been using the car as a "storage locker or facility"