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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


ROBERT RAY DEVRIES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v CITIZENS INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

UNPUBLISHED January 6, 1998

No. 200407 Kent Circuit Court LC No. 96-007444 NF

Before: Griffin, P.J., and Markman and Whitbeck, JJ. MEMORANDUM. In this action in which plaintiff seeks no-fault insurance benefits, plaintiff appeals by right from an order granting summary disposition in favor of defendant insurance company. We decide this appeal without oral argument pursuant to MCR 7.214(E). Plaintiff was injured while driving a vehicle for which legal title was in the name of his then wife. Plaintiff 's deposition testimony established, however, that he had furnished the funds to purchase the vehicle, and that he had principal use of the vehicle, because his wife drove a second vehicle, also titled in her name. Both spouses could freely use either vehicle without permission of the other, and so each sometimes drove both vehicles. The vehicle involved in the accident had a separate insurance policy from the second vehicle. Plaintiff 's wife failed to pay the premiums on the vehicle involved in the accident, and the insurance lapsed prior to the date of the accident. Plaintiff submitted his claim under the assigned claims facility provisions of the no-fault act, MCL 500.3171; MSA 24.13171. The assigned claims facility then referred the claim to defendant Citizens Insurance Company, which rejected the claim, generating the present lawsuit. Defendant sought and was granted summary disposition on the basis that, as a matter of law, plaintiff was an "owner" of the vehicle he was driving, and was therefore precluded, in consequence of having failed to obtain and maintain no-fault insurance on the vehicle, from obtaining no-fault benefits. MCL 500.3113(b); MSA 24.13113(b). Plaintiff is an "owner," under the definition of "owner" found in

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