CAROLINE RANSOM V UTILITY CONTRACTING CO
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
CAROLINE RANSOM,
UNPUBLISHED
April 22, 2008
Plaintiff-Appellant,
No. 276827
Ingham Circuit Court
LC No. 06-000145-NI
v
UTLITY CONTRACTING COMPANY and
DAVID GEORGE YULE,
Defendant-Appellee.
Before: Fort Hood, P.J., and Talbot and Servitto, JJ.
Talbot, J. (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent because I do not find that plaintiff has sufficiently demonstrated the
existence of an impairment that impacts her general ability to lead her normal life under the test
delineated by our Supreme Court in Kreiner v Fischer, 471 Mich 109; 683 NW2d 611 (2004).
It is well settled that the experience of a negative impact on a specific aspect of an
individual’s life is insufficient, standing alone, to meet the threshold requirement established by
the Kreiner Court, as long as the injured person is capable of generally leading their normal life.
Kreiner, supra at 137. Viewing plaintiff’s life in its entirety, and comparing her activity pre- and
post-accident leads to the conclusion that her impairment did not affect her overall ability to
conduct the course of her normal life. Plaintiff continues to work, albeit with some restrictions.
She continues to perform her routine household and daily tasks even though she must alter their
frequency or scheduling. Plaintiff continues to participate in her prior recreational activities
commensurate with her pre-accident behavior. Consequently, I do not believe that her postimpairment condition is sufficiently different in quality to demonstrate that her “general ability”
to conduct the course of her life has been sufficiently impacted to satisfy the serious impairment
of body function threshold necessary for recovery under Michigan’s no-fault statute. MCL
500.3135.
/s/ Michael J. Talbot
-1-
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