Statutory Right to No-Fault Benefits Continues to Trump Insurance Policy’s Fraud Exclusion

Anthony Lacascio v Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company of Michigan, unpublished opinion per curiam of the Court of Appeals, issued October 17, 2019 (Docket No. 344950), is worth reading as it clarifies an important point in Fortson. A common interpretation of Fortson is that it stands for the fact that the actual claimant must commit the fraud for the exclusion to apply (in Fortson, it was the claimant’s parents, not the claimant who committed the alleged fraud). However, this case stands for the position and reiterates the holding in Fortson that a statutory right to PIP benefits outweighs an insurance policy’s fraud exclusion.

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