Insurance Coverage/First Party Insurance Benefits

The plaintiff filed an action against our client, a national insurance company, to recover first-party personal injury protection benefits (PIP) pursuant to an automobile insurance policy. The plaintiff was a passenger in the vehicle insured by our client. We filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the complaint.

We argued that the plaintiff was not entitled to benefits under the policy because at the time of the accident, in violation of New Jersey law, he was the owner of an uninsured motor vehicle.

The court agreed with our position that the statute prohibited the plaintiff from recovering benefits under the policy despite the fact that the plaintiff asserted that his uninsured motor vehicle had substantial mechanical problems and was not operational on the day of the accident.